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Under the Stars 



and Bars 



I 'A 




I 



OR. 



Memories of Four Years Service 



WITH THE 



OGLETHORPES 



OF 



Augusta, 




Georgia. 



By WALTER A. CLARK, 
ORDERIvY SERGEANT. 



■ •/•w 



R-THE STARS AND BARS 



c^n 



Memories of Four Years Service 



WITH THE 



OGLETHORPES, OF AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, 



WALTER A. CLARK, 
Orderly Sergeant. 



Augusta, Ga 
Chronicle Printing Company 
1»00. 



82389 



iresal 



Library of Cong 

Iwo Copies RECf 

NOV 3t0..l>9fla 

Copyrignt enttvy 

SECOND COPY 

Oelivwfld to 

OROtfl DIVISION 

DEC 13 1900 



Elmos' 



\ 



DEDICATION 



To the surviving members of the Oglethorpes, with 
whom 1 shared the dangers and hardships of soldier Hfe 
and to th e memory of those who fell on the firing line, or 
from ghojintly cots in hospital wards, with fevered lip and 
wasted forms, "drifted out on the unknown sea that rolls 
'round all the world," these memories are tenderly and 
affectionately I'nscribed by their old friend and comrade. 



/ 



PREFACE. 



For the gratification of my old comrades and in grate- 
ful memory of tlieir constant kindness during all our 
years of comradeship these records have been written. 
The writer claims no special qualification for the task 
save as it may lie in the fact that no other survivor of the 
Company has so large a fund of material from which to 
draw for such a purpose. In addition to a war journal 
whose entries cover all my four years service, nearly every 
letter written by me from camp in those eventful years 
has been preserved. Whatever lack, therefore, these pages 
may possess on other lines, they furnish at least a truth- 
ful portrait of what I saw and felt as a soldier. It has 
beeen my purpose to picture the lights rather than the 
shadows of our soldier life. War is a terribly serious bus- 
iness and yet camp life has its humor as well as its 
pathos, its comedy as well as its tragedy, its sunshine as 
well as its shadows. 

As Co. B, of the Oglethorpes was an outgrowth of the 
original organization, its muster roll before and after 
reorganization, with a condensed sketch of its war ser- 
vice has been given. For this information I am indebted 
to the kindness of Mr. Frank H. Miller and Mr. Brad 



6 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

Merry, as I am to the former also for data pertaining to 
the early history of the Oglethorpes. 

Aside from the motive already named, there is another 
which has had some influence in inducing me to publish 
these memories. In the generation that has grown up 
since the '6o's, there is a disposition to undervalue the 
merits of the "Old South" and to discount the patriot- 
ism and the courage, the sacrifice and the suffering of 
those, who wore the grey. If these pages shall recall to 
my old comrades with any degree of pleasure, the lights 
and shadows of our soldier life, or shall bring to the 
younger generation, to whom the Old South is not even 
a memory, a truer conception of ''the tender grace of a 
day that is dead" I shall be more than repaid for the 
labor involved in their preparation. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE OGLETHORPES. 

On a winter's cry in '51, in the old Capital at Mil- 
ledgeville, Ga., Howell Cobb, then Governor of Georgia, 
gave his official Fr'iccion to an Act of the General As- 
sembly incorporating a new military organization in the 
City of Augusta. If he had been told that ten years from 
that date he would be wearing the wreath of a Brigadier 
General in actual v/ar and that the Company, to whic:- 
his signature had given legal existence would be camped 
on Virginia soil, attached to the command of an officer, 
v/ho will go down into history as one of the greatest cap- 
tains of the ages, he would have smiled at the statement 
as the outgrowth of a distempered fancy. And yet such 
a prophecy v/ould have found literal fulfilment. 

In honor of the founder of the Georgia Colony the 
Company was named the Oglethorpe Infantry. Hon. 
Andrew J. Miller, was its first commander. Represent- 
ing some of the best blood of one of the most cultured 
cities of the Old South, the company, by its proficiency 
in drill and its military bearing soon gained a distin- 
guished position among the citizen soldiery of the State- 
On the death of Capt. Miller in 1856, Judge Ebenezer 
Starnes was chosen to succeed him. He, in time, was fol- 



8 T'XDEK THE STARS AND BARS. 

lowed by Jolin K. Jackson, afterwards a Brigadier Gen- 
eral in the Confederate Army. During the caiptaincy of 
the last named, the volunteer companies of the State 
were ordered into camp at Milledgeville, Ga., by Gov. 
Herschel V. Johnson. Capt. Jackson, on account of ill- 
ness in his family, could not attend and the Oglethorpes 
were commanded by Lieut. J. O. Clark. In the military 
drill and review, that occurred during the encampment 
the Oglethorpes presented the best m-arching front of 
any company present. Mr. Frank H. Miller, then Ordel- 
ly Sergeant, attributes their success on this line, in part 
at least to the fact that nature hact failed to endow him 
Vvith a full share of what my fa+herwasw ont to term "leg- 
ability," and his shortenend- step, as Company Guide, 
rendered it an easier task for his comrades marching in 
column of companies to preserve their alignment. 

On the organization of the Independent Volunteer 
Battalion in 1857, Capt. Jackson was elected Lieut. Col., 
and Lieut. J. O. Clark succeeded to the captaincy, retain- 
ing the position until the Company was mustered into 
the Confederate service in 1861. Of the original roll as 
organized in 1851, if my information is correct, only Mr. 
\\'illiani Richards now survives. Capt. Horton B. 
Adams, who died during the present year (1899) was the 
last surviving mem'ber of the original roll, who retained 
active connection with the Company from its organiza- 
tion until its enlistment in the Confederate Army, 



IXTKODVCTOKY. ^ 

OFF TO THE WAR. 

Prof Joseph T. Derry, who served with the OrIc- 
thorpes from their enhstment until his capture at Ken- 
,.esaw Mountain; in July, 1864, has kindly furnished the 
following sketch of their war service prior to my con- 
nection with the Company: 

"Following the lead of four of her sister States Geor- 
oia passed an ordinance of 'Secession/ Jan. 19, 1861. 
Gov. ?>rown ordered the seizure of all Federal property 
within the limits of the State, and on Jan. 24 the volun- 
teer companies of Augusta, consisting of the Oglethorpe 
Jnfantrv, Clinch Rifles, Irish Volunteers, Montgomery 
Guards. Washington Artillery, Richmond Hussars, and 
two companies of 'Minute Men.' afterwards organized 
into the W^alker Light Infantry, with a company of 
infantry from Edgefield, So. Ca., and two hundred 
mounted rn^en from Burke county, marched up to the 
Augusta Arsenal and demanded its surrender, 

Capt. Elzey, afterwards a Brigadier General in the 
Confederate Army, was in command, and having only 
a small force in tlie barracks, he promptly complied with 
the demand. 
ORGANIZATION OF FIRST GA. REGIMENT. 

The efforts to secure a peaceable separation from the 
Union having failed, the Augusta companies promptly 
offered their services to the Confederacy. The Ogle- 
Ihorpes and Walker Light Infantry were the first two 



10 UNDER THE '^ TAES AND BARS. 

accepted. On March i8, 1861, the Hsts for the Ogle- 
thorpes were opened at their armory on Reynolds 
street. Sterhng C. Eve was the first to enroll his name, 
and Virginius G. Hitt was the second. 

As the Company had in its ranks a larger number 
than would be accepted, married m^en were excluded, 
except as commissioned officers. In the closing days of 
March, orders were received from the War Department 
for these two companies to rendezvous at Macon, Ga. 
On April ist they were escorted to the Central R. R. 
Depot by all the volunteer companies of Augusta, while 
the entire city, apparently, turned out to witness their 
departure and to bid them God speed on their mission. 

On April 3rd the First A^olunteer Regiment of Ga. 
was organized with the following corps of field officers: 

Colonel, James N. Ramsey, Columbus, Ga. 

Lieut. Colonel, James O. Clark, Augusta, Ga. 

Major, Geo. H. Thompson, Atlanta, Ga. 

Adjutant, James W. Anderson, Newnan, Ga. 

Quartermaster, Andrew Dunn, Forsythe, Ga. 

Commissary, Geo. A. Cunningham, Augusta, Ga. 

The enlistment dated from March 18, '61, and the reg- 
iment was composed of the following companies: 
A. Newnan Guards, Capt. Geo. M. Hanvey. 
r.. Southern Guards, Capt. F. S. Wilkins. 

C. Southern Right Guards, Capt. Jno. A. Hauser. 

D. Oglethorpe Infantry, Capt. Horton B. Adams 

E. Washington Rifles, Capt. S. A. H. Jones. 



INTRODUCTORY. 11 

F. Gate City Guards, Capt. W. L. Ezzard. 

G. Bainbridge Independents, Capt. Jno. W. Evans. 
H. Dahlonega Volunteers, Capt. Alfred Harris. 

I. Walker Lignt Infantry, Capt. S. H. Crump. 

K. Quitman Guards, Capt. J. S. Pinkard. 

The patriotism of Augusta is evidenced by the fact 
ihat in this, the first regiment organized, she had larger 
representation than any city in the State. On the date of 
i's organization Gov. Brown reviewed the regiment and 
delivered an address that aroused much enthusiasm. A 
few days later we left for Pensacola, via Montgomery, 
Ala., then the Capital of the new Confederacy. Between 
Garland and Evergreen, Ala., there was a gap of sixteen 
miles, over which the boys had to take the peoples' route 
as there was no railway connection. It was their first 
march and as their feet grew sore and their untried mus- 
cles wearied by the unaccustom^ed strain upon them, 
they began to ask the citizens they met: ''How far to 
Evergreen?" "After you pass the next hill and reach the 
rise of another it will be five miles," said one. This point 
reached, another was asked the question. "Six miles," 
he said. Tramping along the dusty highway, another 

traveler was met, ''How far to ." "For the Lord's 

sake," said Tom Eve, "don't inquire again. The road 
gets longer every time you ask." 



12 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

AN AMENDMENT TO THE TABLE OF LONG 
MEASURE. 

AMiile not germane to the matter under discussion my 
friend. Joe Derry will pardon I know a slight interrup 
lion in his story, suggested by the incident just related. 
Passing through the piney woods of Richmond county 
som years ago the writer stopped at a country home to 
secure proper direction as to his route. A lady came to 
the door and in answer to my questions, said she was 
unable to give the information, but suggested that I 
might be enlightened at the next house. "How far is 
the next house?'' I asked. "About twict out o' sight," 
she replied, and I went on my way with at least the sat- 
isfaction of having secured for the "table of long meas- 
ure," that had worried me in my school boy days, an 
amendment, that in originality if not in deiiniteness, was 
literally "out o' sight." 

"Straggling into Evergreen, next morning, we reached 
Pensacola by rail that evening, spent a day in the town 
and then sailed down the beautifurbay, past the navy 
yard at Warrenton, and so close to Fort Pickens that its 
guns could have blown us out of the water. Landing near 
Fort Barrancas, we marched to our camping place, half 
a mile beyond and near the magazine. Our stay here was 
marked by no special incident, the time being spent in 
drilling, regimental and picket duty, unloading powdei 
from a sloop and filling sand bags to strengthen the fron', 
of I'^ort Barrancas. 



INTKODUCTOUY. 13 

About the last of May, orders were received for the 
transfer of the regiment to Mrginia. Steaming back to 
Pensacola, the Oglethorpes were met by a delegation 
from the Clinch Rifles, 5th (la. Reg., by whom they 
were conducted to the quarters of that company and roy • 
ally entertained until our departure next day. The pleas- 
ure of the occasion was marred, however, by the death 
of Bugler Parkins, of the Clinch, caused by the bite of a 
small ground-rattlesnake. -On reaching Augusta the 
Company received an ovation as great as that accorded 
them on their departure for Pensacola. Three days in 
Augusta and then we were off for Richmond, where we 
met wirh a vGvy hearty reception. At our camp we were 
reviewed by President Davis and Gov. Letcher, bot'h of 
whom addressed the regiment. About the middle of 
June we were off for Staunton by rail, stopping at 
Waynesboro to partake of a bountiful feast prepared for 
us by the ladies and served on rough pine tables in pic- 
nic style." 

(Col. C.H. Withrow, then a resident of Waynesboro,, 
recalls the incident and says that he was strongly im- 
pressed with the appetite shown by the boys on that 
occasion, that the presence of beauty did not prevent 
them from doing ample justice to the spread.) 

''At Staunton the regiment was entertained by a con- 
cert, in which "the children of the Blind Asylum sang 
patriotic Southern airs. A few days later we were on the 
march to re-inforce Garnett at Laurel Hill. About mid- 



14 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

day of the first day's march the patriotism of the Virginia 
la-dies manifested itself again in a bountiful feast pre- 
j)ared for us in a beautiful grove, while from a rock near 
% there gushed forth a bold spring of almost ice-cold 
water. A night or two afterward, we camped at the foot 
of Cheat Mountain, in a beautiful valley, at the Southern 
end of which some time later we were stationed tor sev- 
eral months, confronting a Federal force under Gen. 
Reynolds on Cheat Mountain. A young lady living near 
our camping ground entertained us with Southern 
•songs, with a melodeon accompaniment, some of the 
boys singing with her. Two nights later, at Beverly, we 
encountered a fearful storm, which blew down every 
tent and repeated that interesting performance every 
time we put them up. 

Reaching Laurel Hill we found that service in West 
Virginia was far more serious business that at Pensacola. 
Picket duty was heavy and soon became dangerous. 
McLellan with 20,000 men, began his advance early in 
July. To oppose this force Garnett had only 4,500 men, 
jnany of whom were in the hospital. Exposure had pro- 
duced much sickness and here occurred the first death 
among the Oglethorpes, that of Dillard Adams, a good 
soldier and a true man. On July 7th Gen. Morris took 
position m our front with 8,000 men, while McLellan, 
with the remainder of his force advanced on Rich Moun- 
tain, held by Col. Pegram with 1,300 of Garnett's com- 
mand. On July 8th the ist Ga. moved out in front of 



INTRODUCTORY. 15 

i.anrel Hill to feel the enemy's position. We soon 
encountered their skirmishers, who after shelling woods, 
attempted to seize a small round hill in front of Beling- 
lon. Lieut. Col. J. O. Clark quickly deployed his men 
<md exclaiming, "Up the hill, boys, and remember you 
are Georgians," led a gallant charge, which drove the 
enemy back with some loss. Skirmishing continued until 
Tuly nth, when Garnett learned that Rich Mountain had 
been captured by Rosecranz. 

THE LAUREL HILL RETREAT. 

The capture of Pegrara's position and of a large part 
of his force necessitated the evacuation of Laurel Hill, 
and Garnett began his retreat towards Beverly; sixteen 
miles distant. After two-thirds of the distance had been 
covered he was falsely informed that the enemy had 
already occupied that place, and retracing his steps 
almost to his abandoned camp, he turned off towards 
Beverly, crossing, by an almost inmpassable road, over 
Cheat Mountain into the Cheat River valley and 
intending by turning the mountains at their Northern 
end to regain his communications. On July 13th we 
were overtaken by the Federals between Kalers and Cor- 
iicks fords. The 1st Ga. and 23rd Va., with a section of 
artillery under Lieut. Lanier, and a cavalry force under 
Capt. Smith, were formed into a rear guard to protect 
the wagon train. At Carrick's Ford the 23rd Va. suffered 
considerably and a part of the wagon train was cap- 



16 



turc 



UNDEU THE STARS AND BAIIS. 

d. The larger part of six companies of the ist Ga. 
and including- the Oglethorpes, failed to hear the order 
to retire and held their position until the enemy had 
passed. Cut off from the main force and with no avenue 
of escape except the pathless mountains, that hemmed 
them in, the}- wandered for three days with nothing to 
appease their hunger except the inner bark O'f the laurel 
trees. On the third day, famished and worn out, they 
stopped to rest, when Evan Howell proposed that he 
and another member of the regiment would go forward 
and endeavor to hnd an outlet or a pilot to lead them to 
an inhabited section. He fortunately met with a moun- 
taineer named Parsons, who took them to his home, 
called in his neighbors, killed a number of beeves to 
feed the famished men and then ])iloted them safely to 
Monterey. 

Gen. Garnett, who was with the main column, had 
been killed, after passing Carrick's Ford, while with- 
drawing his rear guard and his force under Ramsey and 
Taliaferro marched all night and succeeded in passing 
the Red House and turning the mountain before Gen. 
Hill, who was sent by McLellan to intercept them, had 
reached that poin". They were now on fairly good roads, 
in friendly, country and at Petersburg, W. Ya., the peo- 
ple turned out en masse to fccvl the exhausted Confed- 
erates. T>o this point they retired by easy marches to 
Monterey. The campaign, undertaken with a small force, 
to hold an unfriendly section, had proven an expensive 
failure." 



CHAPTER 



DONNING THE GREY. 

About m'idday on Dec. 20, i860, the writer sat in an 
audience room in Macon, Ga., listening- to an address 
delivered by Hon. Howell Cobb to fhe Cotton Planters' 
Convention, then in session in that city. After all these 
years my memory retains no trace of that address in 
either theme or outline. I do recall, however, an inter- 
ruption in its delivery, remembered, possibly, because 
it threw a crimson tint over the years that followed it, and 
for the further reason that if there had been no occasion 
for such an interruption, these records might never have 
been written. While Mr. Cobb was speaking, a messen- 
ger entered the hall and handed him a telegram. He 
broke the seal, glanced over its contents and then read 
the following message to the audience: "The South 
Carolina Convention has just passed the Ordinance of 
Secession from the Union." From that moment the 
''Cotton Planters' Convention " was no longer in it. The 
audience becam'c a howling mob. That night there was 
a torchlight procession with brass band accompani- 
ments. The streets were packed with a solid mass of 
excited, fevered, yelling humanity. The people were 
simply wild for Southern independence and the scene 
was probably duplicated in every Southern city. 



18 UNDER THE STARS AXD BARS. 

In the early months in '6i, when all hope of a peace- 
I'ul separation had passed, the war fever attacked first th- 
tow'ns and cities where the people were in constant touch 
with each other and where the daily press kept the pub- 
lic pulse at more than -normal beat. As the demand for 
^'troops increased, the infection spread to quiet country 
"places with their monthly church service and their w^eek- 
ly mail. And so in due time it reached the community in 
which I livx^d, a com'munity of quiet, well-to-do farmers, 
whose knowledge oif Jamini and the art ol war was 
decidedly limited. A military organization of thirty of 
forty men was, ^however, efifected and Mr. John D. Mon- 
gin, the only member who knew the difiference bteween 
''shoulder arms" and "charge bayonet," was elected cap- 
tain. Our weekly drills at the academy grounds were 
•xonlined largely to marching in single rank to the music 
♦of a rustic drummer and fifer, v/ho seemed in blissful 
I ignorance of anything but "slow time." There was a 
•short-legged Frenchman in the company, whose num- 
I'cr was ''32" and, who in counting off, always respond- 
ed with "dirty too." A year or two later those of us, who 
■had seen actual service, could probably have made the 
-same response without impairing in the least our repu- 
tation for veracity. As there was not sufficient m'aterial 
in the community to form a full company, my brother 
and myself, with D. W. Mongin, A. J. and J. H. Rhodes, 
made application to the Oglethorpe Infantry, ist Ga. 
Regiment, then at Laurel Hill, Va., for admission into its 



DONNING THE GREY. 19 

ranks, and were accepted. Leaving Augusta July 31. 
1 86 1, in company with George Pournelle and Ginnie 
Hitt, who were returning from a ten days' furlough, we 
stopped over in Richmond a day and visited the Con- 
federate Congress then in session. Sitting in the gallery 
of the Senate Cham'ber looking down upon Alex Steph- 
ens in the chair and Bob Toombs, Ben Hill, E. A. Nisbet 
R. M. T. Hunter and other worthies in the Hall, Luke 
Lane, an old college classmate, wrote on the fly leaf of 
tlie pocket diary, froni^ which these records are partly 
taken a sort of preface, closing it with these words : 
"Here's hoping that every Yankee may find a bloody 
grave;" and Ginnie Hitt, sitting by, wrote beneath it: 
"Amen, say L" Luke appended my initials to the senti- 
ment, but as it was stronger than my inclinations 
prompted me to endorse, I erased them. We visited also 
the prison hospital where the Federals wounded at Ma- 
nassas, were being cared for. It was my first contact with 
"grim visaged war." 

To a strippling boy, reared in a quiet country home 
and in a community in which there had never occurred 
a seriotis personal difficulty, I had neither inherited nor 
acquired any taste for carnage or bloodshed, and the 
scene was not a pleasant one. And yet the battlefield 
imfortunately soon dulls our natural sensibilities and be- 
gets an indifference to suffering that would shock us in 
civil life. 

On reaching Monterey, Va., where the Oglethorpes 



20 



UNDER THE STARS AXD BAKS. 



were recuperating from the hardships of the "Laurel 
Hill Retreat," we found every tent occupied and wc 
remained at the village inn until quarters could be pro- 
vided. I rem^enber that I slept, or tried to sleep, on the 
bare floor of our room as a sort of preparation for the 
life on which I was entering. In this connection I recall 
another fact, a peculiarity of t'his tavern, and that was 
its capacity for the titilization of green apples as an article 
of public diet. My experience with hostelries is not 
claimed to be at all extensive, but among those whose 
hospitality I have had the good or bad fortune to enjoy, 
or endure, this particular inn, on the line named, cer- 
tainly ''took the dilapidated Hnen from the lonely shrub." 
We were treated to apples baked and stewed and fried, 
to apple tarts and custards and dumplings, to apple but- 
ter and it would probably be no exaggeration to say, 
''there were others." After paying O'ur bill Dan Mongin 
remarked, "When green apple season plays out this hotel 
is going to suspend." In verification of his prophecy, 
when we passed through Monterey en route to join 
Stonwall Jackson in December, its doors were closed, its 
lights were gone and all its halls deserted. Whether its 
demise was due to the green apple theory, I am unable 
to say. 

My first month in camp was devoid of incident^ its mo- 
notony being varied only by squad drill, guard duty, for- 
aging for maple syrup and other edibles among the 
Dutch farmers of that section and digging graves for 



DONNING THE (tREY. 21 

the unfortunate victims of the campaign just ended. One 
of the graves which the v/riter helped to dig in very hard 
clay, was appropriated by a burial squad from- another 
^egiment for one of their own dead. I am not lawyer 
enough to say wiiether the act was petty larceny, forci- 
ble entry anrl detainer, or what an old colored friend of 
mine once diagnosed as "legal mischievous" with the 
accent on the second syllable. 

MY FIRST MARCH. 

On Sept. 7, '6i, Sterling Eve, Ginnie Hitt, Dan Mon- 
gin and the writer, not having been favored with the 
confidence of Gen. Lee as to his military plans, went into 
the country on a foraging expedition. This trip was 
probably inspired by a triumph in the culinary line 
achieved by Dr. Hitt and George Pournelle in supply- 
ing our table with two varieties of dumpling, apple and 
huckleberry, on the same day. We had no bag, in which 
to boil the dumpling and were forced to use the mess 
towel as a substitute. How long it had been subjected 
to its ordinary uses before being utilized in this way I do 
not now recall. Dr. Hitt remembers, however, or says he 
does, that the entire outer surface of the dumplings was 
towel-marked. The nature of the mark referred to is left 
without further discussion to the imagination of the 
reader. In this connection I recall another incident in the 
culinary line, which may be as well recorded here as 
elsewhere. A.bout twentv vears after the war I met Dr. 



22 UNDEK THE STARS AND BARS. 

Hitt in Augusta and taking something from my pocket. 
1 handed it to him. and asked if he could give me any 
information as to its character. He examined it very 
carefully by sight, touch and smell, and then said very 
confidently: ''Oh, yes, I know what that it. It is a stone 
taken from a deer's liver." His diagnosis was not ''reas- 
onably" correct. The article under examination was a 
Confederate biscuit baked in our camp at Jacksonboro, 
Tenn., in 1863, sent to my father's family as a specimen 
and preserved during all those years. If I had taken the 
precaution to have imm'crsed it in insect powder it 
would probably at this date have been still in the ring, 
though possibly a little disfigured. A few years after Dr. 
Hitt's examination, I found that it had — 

"Like an insubstantial pageant faded 

Leaving not a wrack" — 
but only a little dust behind. 

On our return from the foraging tour with a good 
supply of potatoes, onions and maple syrup, we found 
the camp deserted — a camp favored with the purest 
mountain air and the finest spring water, and yet where 
Dan Mongin wTOte to his father for brandy to counter- 
act the effects of malaria. The entire force at Monterey 
had been ordered to report to Gen. Henry R. Jackson 
on Green Brier River, and had broken camp two hours 
before our arrival. After resting an hour we began 
the tramp, trudging over the mountain roads for eight 
miles in the mud and rain and stopping for the night at 



DONNING THE GREY. 23 

the residence of a Col. Campbell in Crab Bottom-. Here 
we had the pleasure of meeting the first two heroines of 
the war, Miss McLeod and Miss Kerr. They had ridden 
seventy miles on horseback without an escort to notify 
Gen. Garnett of McLellan's approach. My first day's 
march, though a short one, had broken me down so 
thoroughly that I was compelled to tax the kindness of 
a 3rd Arkansas Regiment wagoner for a ride next dav- 
The entry in my journal for that date begins with these 
Avords: 'Took the road with a heavy heart and a heavier 
load." Three years later, under the hardening process of 
camp life I was enabled to march, on Hood's tramp to 
Nashville and back to Corinth, Miss., twenty miles a day 
continuously and rode only one of the eight hundred 
miles covered in that campaign. During my two days 
experience as an "Arkansas Traveler" I think I heard 
more expletive, unadulterated ''cussin" from' the driver 
of that wagon than it has ever been m.y misfortune to lis- 
ten to. His capacity in this Hne seemed to be not only 
double barreled, but of the magazine gun variety. If he 
had failed to pass his examination in the school of 
profanity I have never seen a man who was entitled to 
a diploma. I appreciated the ride, but was glad to reach 
our new camp, since it relieved me of his presence. 

MY FIRST SKIRMISH. 

Gen. Jackson's force on the Green Brier consisted of 
ihe 1st and 12th Ga., the 3rd Ark. and the 23rd and 37tk 



24 UXDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

Va. Regiments. Ten or twelve miles northwest of us, on 
Cheat Mountain, lay a Federal force of 5,000 men under 
Gen. Reynolds. Gen. Lee had planned an attack to be 
made on this force on the morning of Sept. 12th, two 
days after our arrival at the Green Brier. On the even- 
ing of the nth an advance guard of ninety men from 
the 1st and 12th Ga. under command of Lieut. Dawson, 
was formed with instructions to flank, by a night march, 
the Federal picket, secure a position in their rear, cap- 
ture them and thus prevent notice to Gen. Reynolds of 
the intended attack. For this guard there were detailed 
from the Oglethorpes, Wilberforce Daniel, Joe Derry, 
Tom Burgess, W. H. Clark and the writer. Leaving 
camp at 7:30 p. m., under the pilotage of a citizen of 
that section we reached a position within half a mile of 
the Federal camp about sunrise, after a fatiguing march, 
in the rain and mud, being compelled to draw ourselves 
up the slippery mountain side by the undergrowth that 
lay in our route. Soon after reaching our place of am- 
bush we heard the drums beat for ''Guard Mount" and 
then the bands began to play "Annie Laurie," "Run, 
Nigger Run," and "Jordan is a Hard Road to Trabble," 
were three of the selections rendered. The first suggested 
pleasant memories of our far away homes; the second, 
the possibility that in a little while there might be a 
practical illustration of the refrain, while the tramp we 
had just taken satisfied us that "Jordan" was not the 
only hard road to travel. The selection of these airs re- 



DONNING THE GREY. 25 

calls the singular fact that in actual service military 
bands do not as a rule play national or military music. 
The writer had other opportunities than the one named 
of hearing Federal bands during his term of service, but 
does not recall a single instance in which a national air 
was rendered. Lulled by the music and overcome by 
fatigue and loss of sleep, I fell into a doze, from which I 
was awakened by the accidental discharge of a gun in 
the hands of one of the guard. A Federal sergeant from 
the picket post, hearing the noise, came down the road 
to investigate. On reaching a point opposite the left of 
our line he heard the ominous click of the rifle hammers 
and started in full run for his camp. Six or eight balls 
crashed through him and the poor fellow fell dead in the 
road. Attracted by the firing, about twenty-five of the 
Federal pickets came hurriedly down the road and on 
seeing their dead comrade fired a volley into the woods, 
which concealed us, but failed to do any execution. 
''Charge!" sang out our commander, and we broke for 
the road. Before reaching it, the pickets had scattered 
into the woods beyond. Tom Burgess, as he leaped into 
the road saw one of them rise from a stump behind 
which he had been hiding, and run. Tom^ raised his rifle, 
took deliberate aim and fired. As he fell, Tom pointed 
his finger at him and said, "Got you." I was standing 
only a few feet from Tom and it has always been a mat- 
ter of gratification to me that my gun had been fired 
before reaching the road and that T had no opportunity 



26 UXDER THE STARS AND BARS. ^ 

to reload. At siich close range it would have been almostr 
impossible to have missed my man, and whatever my 
feeling at the tim.e may have been it would have been a 
source of life-long regret to me to know positively that 
''some mother's boy" had fallen by my hand, even in 
war. Sevcial others were killed as they ran through the 
woods. No member of the guard received even a scratch, 
and the affair had more the appearance of a rabbit hunt 
than a skirmish. After the firing 'had ceased, Lieut. Daw- 
son, feeling that it was unsafe to remain so near the Fed- 
eral camp with so small a force, reformed the guard and. 
we began our march down the mountain. We were ex- 
pecting to meet the reserve picket of the enemy and '.!* 
a sharp curve in the road were confronted by a column 
of troops marching in fours and only a hundred yards 
away. One of the guard sang out, "Here they are boys," 
and the firing began. Three men were shot down and 
seeing that we were outnumbered, Dawson gave the 
command: 'Tall below the road." Believing that implicit 
obedience to orders was the first requisite of a soldier, I 
responded with considerable promptness. The fire slack- 
ened a moment and then came the order: "Charge 'em." 
Up into the road we clambered again, Avhen -we discover- 
ed that we were fighting our own regiment, and "Cease 
firing, we are Georgians," rang out from nearly a hund- 
red throats. Ed Johnson, then in command of the 12th 
Ga., afterwards a Major General, was riding towards the 
head of the column and hearing our cry, sang out: "They 



DONNING THE GREY. 27 

are liars, boys. Pop it to 'em! Pop it to 'em." The mistake 
was soon discovered, however, and the firing ceased. 
Three m-en had been killed and a number wounded by 
this mutual and unfortunate error. After the skirmish 
had ended and order had been restored. Dr. Hitt told 
me that he had drawn a bead, squirrel or otherwise, on 
my anatomy, and was in the act of firing when Col. Ed 
Johnson, in his anxiety to reach the front, rode directly 
between us and possibly saved him the horror of having 
killed a comrade and messmate. One of the victims of 
that encounter, Felder, of the Houston Guards, told his 
mess on leaving camp that he would be killed, a presenti- 
ment t^hat v^as unifortunately too true. Another poor fel- 
low was shot through the thigh, the ball cutting an artery. 
He lay there until the blood ran dowm the road for a 
distance of fifteen feet. The sight caused another soldier 
to have a nervous chill and lie begged piteously to be 
moved away. 

After the wounded had been cared for, the guard was 
reform.'ed in front of the brigade and we were marched 
back to a position in front of the Federal camp to await 
the attack on its rear by the 3rd Ark. and the 23rd Va. 
Why this attack was never made seems to be a sort of 
unsolved problem. Gen. Lee is said to have made a ver- 
bal explanation to President Davis, but if there has 
been any published statement of the reason I have failed 
to see it. As the attack on the rear had for some reason 
failed to materialize. Gen. Jackson, after remaining on 
ihe mountain for four days, returned to his old camp. 



28 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

In connection with this, my first skirmish I am glad 
to have the opportunity of paying deserved tribute to a 
comrade, who has since passed over the river, but who, 
on that day, as on every other in which I had the honor 
to serve with him in time of peril, was conspicuous for 
his courage and his cool indifference to danger. When 
the order was given to fall below the road in order to 
secure some protection from the rocks and trees. Will 
Daniel refused to do so and kept his exposed position, 
coolly loading and firing until the skirmish was over. 
In devotion to the cause, for which he fought, in readi- 
ness to accept the gravest personal risks, in apparently 
absolute unconsciousness of danger, he was every inch 
*i soldier. 

And now what were my own sensations in this, my 
first baptism of fire? A candid confession is said to be 
good for the soul, but whether it would be good for the 
reputation in this particular case is another matter. Un- 
der the law of testimony a witness is not compelled to 
incriminate himself. Besides, after the lapse of nearly 
forty years, my memory can not be expected to retain 
very accurately such minor details. I will only say, there- 
fore, that while the excitement produced by the crack of 
the rifles and the hiss of the minies did in some degree 
lessen the sense of personal danger, I have been able, 
even in my limited experience as a traveler, to find quite 
a number of places that were to me equally as pleasant 
as being: under fire even for the first time. I speak, of 



DONNING THE GREY. 2^^ 

course, only for myself. Men's tastes differ in this as 
widely perhaps as in other matters, and I do not claim 
that mine was a universal or even a common experience. 
1 only claim that while I had been curious to know how 
I would feel under such circumstances, my curiosity was 
satisfied in a little while, in a very little while. This ma\ 
have been due to the fact that my temperament is con- 
servative and that I did not care to be an extremist even 
in a little matter of this kind— possibly, ah, yes, possibly. 

MY FIRST PICKET DUTY. 

For several miles in our front, the road leading to- 
wards Cheat Mountain ran throug-h a narrow valley and 
then crossing the river, wound up the mountain side. On 
an outpost near this road my first picket service was ren- 
dered. From an aesthetic, rather than a military poinc 
of view the scenery from this post was really enchant- 
ing. Just beyond the river lay a range of mountains 
broken in its contour by a partial gap. In its rear and 
forming a background, rose a loftier range, the whole 
constituting in appearance a mammoth alcove. The fol- 
iage of the forest growth, that studded the slopes from 
base to summit, alchemized by the autumn frosts had 
changed its hues to gold and crimson and with its blend- 
ed tints forming to the eye an immense boquet, the pic- 
ture was worthy an artist's brush and has lingered in 
my memory during all these years. But the scene 
changes. Night comes on cold and drizzlv and starless 



30 



UXDER THE STARS Ai^D BARS. 



No fire is allowed by the officer of the guard. Standing 
alone on an outpost in Egyptian darkness and numbed 
with cold, while the muffled patter of the rain drops on 
the fallen leaves continually suggests the stealthy foot- 
fall of an approaching foe, I reach the conclusion that 
It subjects a man to some inconvenience to die" for his 
country. 

A few nights afterwards the picket at tliis post was 
attacked by the enemy and driven in. As they retired un- 
der fire Joe Derry was knocked down by a buck and ball 
cartridge that riddled his cap and grazed his scalp but 
inflicted no wound. When they had rallied on the reserve 
post and Joe had opportunity to take his bearings he 
found that while unwilling to remain and e.xtend to his 
Northern friends any social courtesies, he had been 
kind enough to leave with them a lock of his hair. The 
clipping was made without pecuniary charge, but Joe 
has probably preferred since to patronize a professional 
barber even at the expense of his bank account. 

MY FIRST BATTLE. 

On Oct. 3rd, '61, Gen. Reynolds, thinking, possibly, 
that military etiquette required that he should return the 
call we had made him on Sept. 12th, came down, attend- 
ed by his entire force and knocked at the door of our 
outer picket posts in the early morning hours with th» 
ovident purpose of making an informal visit to our camp 
The knock was loud enough to aronse Col. Ed. Johnson 



DONNING THE GREY. 31 

who went out and took command of the pickets in per- 
son in order that the reception given our visitors might 
be sufficiently warm and cordial. Under his personal 
direction every foot of the Federal advance was stub- 
bornly contested. A little fellow belonging to our regi- 
ment finally grew tired of falling back and running up 
to Johnson said: "Colonel, let's charge 'em." Johnson, 
with that peculiar nervous twitching of the lip that char- 
acterized him in battle, commended the little fellow for 
his grit, but did not think it good military judgment to 
charge an entire army of five thousand men with a 
squad of fifty pickets. By 8 a. m. Gen. Reynolds had 
taken po.^ition in our front and his artillery had opened 
onour line. The main attack was expected on our right, 
and to its defence the ist and 12th Ga. were assigned. 
Forming into line and lying down to escape, the shot 
and shells from the Federal batteries, we awaited the 
attack. A nervous officer in the regiment kept walking 
up and down the line saying: "Keep cool, boys, keep 
cool," until Lieut. Ben Simmons of the Oglethorpes, 
suggested to him that he was wasting his breath, that 
the boys were cool. Gen. Jackson came down to our 
position to overlook the field, and while there a courier 
rode up and said: "General, the wagoners are cutting the 
traces and running of¥ with the horses." The General 
grew very much excited and turning to his son, Harry 
Jackson, said, "Go up there, Henry and shoot the first 
wagoner that cuts a trace or leaves his team." Harry 



32 UNDEK THE STARS AND BARS. 

galloped off, trying to get his pistol from the holster 
After the cannonade had lasted several hours an infant- 
ry attack was made on our left and was repulsed. Then 
Gen. Reynolds ordered an assault on our right. As the 
attacking column debouched from the woods on the fur- 
iher bank of the shallow Green Brier, we were doubU- 
'{uicked to the front to oppose their passage. Just thea 
Shoemaker's \'a. Battery began to throw grape shot into 
^heir ranks and the men refused to cross The officer.- 
stormed at them and rode their horses into the ranks in 
the effort to force them to advance, but without avail. 
The column fell back to the road where they were joine^l 
by their right wing and by i p. m. the entire force was 
making tracks for Cheat Mountain. Thus ended my sec- 
ond lesson in ^Jomini." or my first battle, if battle it 
can be called. The losses on both sides, probc^blv, did 
not aggregate two hundred. The official report of the 
engagement was, however, so elaborate that it was sub- 
jected to criticism and ridicule by the merciless pen of 
Jno. M. Daniel, of the Richmond Examiner. It was re- 
ported that he said that there were more casualties from 
overwork and exhaustion in setting up type for that re- 
port ttiau from shot and shell in the battle. 

Among the wounded that day was a member of the 
Bambndge company of our regiment, who had been 
shot down in the early morning as the pickets were retir- 
mg before the Federal advance and, whose comrades 
were forced to leave him where he fell. As the Union 



DONNINC; THi: GHKY. 33^^ 

t 
troops passed him again on ilieir return a surgeon was 
asked as to the propriety of taking- him along as a pris- 
oner. "No," said he. "Give him a canteen of water. He'll 
be dead in a few nours." The wounded man looked up at 
him- and quoting, as Dr. Mclntyre would say, very lib- 
erally from profane history, told him that he didn't in- 
tend to die. They left him, nevertheless, and when, at 3 
o'clock next morning, he was brought into camp, both 
of our surgeons pronounced his wound fatal. He dis- 
sented very strongly from their opinions, was sent to the 
hospital and came out a well man, saved largely, as I 
believe, by his dogged determination not to die. 

A NIGHT STAMPEDE. 

There are panics commercial and panics military^ 
bearing no special relation to each other and yet pro- 
duced possibly by similar causes. One is attributed to a 
lack of confidence in others; the other is possibly due 
to a want of the same mental condition in regard to our- 
selves. In war fear as well as courage is contagious. The 
conspicuous bravery of a single soldier has sometimes 
steadied a wavering line, while one man's inability to ta<'e 
ihe music has begun a rearward movement that ended 
in a rout. Gen. Dick Taylor says that in Jackson's Val- 
ley Campaign he one day .juieted the nervousness of his 
men under a heavv fire by standing ont he breastworks 
and coolly striking a match on the heel of his boot to 
light a cigar. His apparent indifference to ihc danger 



34 UNDER THE STARS xVXD BARS. 

was probably feigned but it produced the desired result. 
Heroism in battle and out of it is probably not so much 
the result of what is termed personal courage as it is the 
effect of lofty pride of character, backed and strengthen- 
ed by a God-like sense of duty. Napoleon once ordered 
one of his colo-nels to charge a battery that was playing 
havoc with his lines. The of^cer turned pale as the order 
came from his commander's lips, but he went to his post 
promptly and led the charge and Napoleon said to his 
^tafif: 'That's a brave man, he feels the danger, but is 
willing to face it." There are tim^es, however, in war, 
when men, from some cause, real or imaginary, los;» 
their self-control and give way to an unreasonable and 
unreasoning fear, when the instinct of self-preservation 
is uppermost and patriotism and pride alike lose their 
;power. A few^ occasions of this kind I recall in my term 
^of service. One of them occurred on the night of Oct. 
26, '61, at Green Brier River. A picket from one of the 
outposts came in and reported the presence of a body of 
Pederal troops near his post. Two companies from the 
1st and 1 2th Ga. and 37th Va. each, were aroused from 
5.1eep and sent out to capture or disperse these disturbers 
of our dreams. Few occasions in war test a man's ner\'es 
more thoroughly tha^n being suddenly awakened at night 
by an alarm-. I have known men at such a time to suffer 
from nervous chills and on one occasion it brought on a 
member of the regiment an attack of cholera morbus. 
As this was the only instance within mv observation 



DONNING THE GREY. 35 

when such a result was produced, I am not prepared, 
without further evidence, to recommend it to the medical 
profession either as an emetic or an aperient. 

Tlie six companies, includino: the Oglethorpes. had 
passed the last vidette post and crossing Green Brier 
River had begun the ascent of the mountain beyond. 
We had reached the point where the enemy had been 
seen and the location was an ideal one for an ambuscade. 
The dense forest growth overarching the road, shut out 
the starlight and we were unable to see six feet in our 
front. The head of the column had passed a sharp bend 
in the road and was doubling back, after the manner 
of mountain highways, when a soldier near the front 
stepped on a stick and it broke with a sharp snapping 
sound resembling the click of a rif^e hammer. Some one 
in his rear, not knowing that the column had changed 
direction, and mistaking the sound for evidence of an 
ambush, said: "Look out boys," and stepped to the side 
of the road. The next file followed suit and the move- 
ment increased in volumn and force as it came down the 
line, until the hurried tramp of feet sounded like a cav- 
alry charge, as most of the men thought it was. For a 
few minutes everything was in confusion and panic 
reigned supreme. There was an undefined dread in every 
man's mind of a danger whose character and extent was 
hidden by the darkness. Several guns were fired, but 
fortunately there were no casualties save a few skinned 
noses from too sudden contact with the undergrowth 



3G UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

that walled in the road. Order was finally restored and 
the command proceeded on its mission, but failed to 
locate an enemy, which had probably never existed ex- 
cept in the perverted vision of a nervous picket. 

THREE LirrLE CONFEDERATES. 

Thomas Nelson Page has written very charmingly of 
"Two Little Confederates," but an incident that occurred 
during our stay 9t Green Brier shows that ''there were 
others." On Nov. 14, '61, three Virginia boys living in 
vicinity of our camp, and all under fifteen years of age, 
were out squirrel hunting on the Green Bank road, 
which led partly in the direction of the Federal camp on 
Cheat Mountain. Rambling through the woods in search 
of game, they came in sight of Yankee soldier, who was 
out on a similar errand, or possibly on an independent, 
scouting expedition. As he was a ''stranger" they decided 
to "take him in." He had laid aside his gun and cartridg*- 
box and was sitting by a tree eating his lunch. Slipping 
up noiselessly in his rear they captured his arms and 
then presenting their squirrel rifles they offered to serve 
as an honorary escort to our camp. He was rather loth to 
comply with the request of his youthful captors, but th-- 
muzzles of their guns were very persuasive, and with true 
^^irginia pluck, they marched their mortified prisoner to 
Gen. Jackson's quarters. I regret that I failed to preserve 
the names of those three brave little Confederates. 
But few other incidents worthv of record in these 



DO.NNlNCi THE GKEY. 37 

n,e,nones occurred during our stay on the Green Brier. 
Oti Nov 17 there was a hotly contested snow ball fight 
between the ist and I2th Ga. Regiments, resulting m a 
drawn battle. Two days later at 2 a. m., in response to 
the rattle of musketry at the picket post, we were arous- 
ed and marshalled into line in the wintry night air to 
repel an expected attack on our camp. It was on this 
occasion that the cholera morbus incident, to whicli 
allusion has been made, occurred. The alarm proved 
groundless, as the pickets had mistaken an old grey 
mare and her colt for a body of tlie enemy. As the ani- 
mal was clothed in grey, the Confederate color, the mis- 
take was all the less excusable. 



CHAPTER II. 



A CHANGE OF BASE. 

For some weeks rumors, or '^grape vine" bulletins, as 
they were called, had been afloat in camp that our regi- 
ment was to be transferred to coast service. To boys 
reared in the milder climate of Georgia the taste we were 
having of a Virginia winter rendered these rumors very 
palatable. And when, on Nov. 21, orders came to break 
camp we felt rather confident that we were bidding a 
long farewell to ^Traveler's Repose" and Northwest 
A'^irginia, and were off for Georgia. The baggage wag- 
ons, of which the ist Ga. had at that stage of the wa"r, 
enough, in Gen. Loring's opinion, to equip a division,' 
were loaded and went their way. All the afternoon we 
lay around the dismantled camp awaiting order to "fol- 
low pursuit,'' as a friend of mine once said, but thev fail- 
ed to come. Night settled down cold and cheerless", with 
our tents and blankets ten miles away, and we had to 
make the best of it. My bedfellow and I slept on an 
oilcloth, covered with an overcoat, and tied our four 
feet. up together in a flannel shirt. Next day we crossed 
Allegheny Mountain and after three days' march, buoy- 
ed with the hope of spending the winter under a warmer 
sun, we reluctantly turned our faces Northward ao-ain 



A CHANGE OF liASK. 3l> 

\\ith the feeling in our hearts if not voiced upon our 
]-:ps, 

"O. ever thus from childhood's hour 
I've seen my fondest hopes decay." 

After a week's march my feet grew very sore and as 
1 limped through Harrisonburg, a sweet-faced Virginia 
matron, with music in her voice and the light of heaven 
in her eye, beckoned to me from the window where she 
was sitting and gave me a nice pair of woollen socks. 
Passing through Newtown, Middletown, Kernstown and 
a number of other towns in a section made famous af- 
terwards by Jackson's Valley Campaign, we reached 
Winchester Dec. 8, 1861. A few days later a supply o[ 
l^lamkets contributed by the good ladies of Augusta, was 
received by the Oglethorpes. One of the contributors 
had no blankets, and in lieu of them, donated a hand- 
some crumb-cloth, which like Joseph's coat, was of 
many colors, red and green being the prevailing tints. 
In t'he distribution this fell to Elmore Dunbar, the wag 
of the Company. Not needing it as a blanket he took it 
to a tailor in Winchester, had it transformed into a full 
suit, cap, coat and pants, and donning it had an innum- 
erable company of gamins, white and black, foll(^wing 
in his wake all over the town. 

He and Harrison Foster were messmates. There was 
no discount on either of them as soldiers. Enlisting at 
the first call to arms, they were always among the first 



40 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

to toe the line at every beat of the longroll and in the 
closing months of the war, when hope of success had 
well nigh passed and so many were dropping by the 
wayside, they held out bravely and manfully to^the end. 
But as cooks they were not a brilliant success. One even- 
ing Harrison had gathered a few brush to make a fire, 
when he called on Dunbar to assist in his preparations 
for the evening meal, an appeal, to which the latter failed 
to respond. ^Wel]," said Harrison, ''if you don't help, I'll 
swear I won't cook any supper." "All right," said 
Dunbar, "My supper's cooked," and fishing out of 
his coattail pocket an antiquated biscuit of uncertain 
^ge, he began to nibble. ''Well," said Harrison, "I won't 
build any fire. You'll have to freeze," and Dunbar gently 
drew from his haversack an old-fashioned silk 
beaver hat, that he had worn in the march up the valley 
and quietly placed it on the fire as liis contribution to the 
evening's comfort. 

A SOLILOQUY— (NOT HAMLET'S.) 

Among the original members enlisting with the Ogle- 
thorpes, was one H— H— , who, in civil life, was'' so 
scrupulously careful with his dress that in these latter 
days he would have passed a creditable examination as 
a dude. Camp life is not specially conducive to personal 
neatness and eight month's service had left to him on 
this line only the memory of better days. Returning from 
Winchester one night in a condition not promotive of 



A CHANGE OF BASE. 41 

mental equilibriunv, he failed to find his tent and spent 
the ni-ht around the camp fire He awoke next morn- 
ing wit'h his head m a camp kettle and his clothing soiled 
an"d blackened by contact with the cooking utensils, that 
had been his only bed-fellows. Running his han.l 
through his matted locks and surveying his discolored 
uniform he was overheard to indulge in the following 
soliloquy: ''Is this the gay and fascinating H— H— , that 
once perambulated the streets of Augusta in faultless 
attire? When I think of what I am and what I used to 
was, I feel myself blamed badly treated without suffi- 
cient cause." 

-LIABLE TO DISAPPINTMENTS." 

On a Saturday afternoon in my boyhood days, in com- 
pany with a schoolmate, I was rambling through the 
woods in the enjoyment of the hebdomadal relief from 
the restraints of the school room and the unpalatable 
mysteries of the Three R's taught with a hickory attach- 
ment. Reaching a country bathinghouse half-filled with 
water and used by a neighboring colored Baptist church 
for baptismal purposes, we proceeded to draw off the 
Avater in order to catch the tadpoles that were enjoying 
their otium cum^ dignitate on its mud-lined bottom. On 
the next day the preacher and congregation assembled 
at the place to administer the rite of baptism to a num- 
ber of applicants for membership. Owing to our tadpole 
hunt of the preceding day, they found that unlike the 



42 



UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 



place ment,o„ed in the Scriptures, there was not "much 
-.vater there," and they were compelled to defer the cere- 
mony to a more convenient season. In dismissing the 
congregation the colored brother took occasion to re- 
mark that "We are liable, brethren, to disappintments 
;n th,s life,'- On Christmas day in -61, in our camp, near 
^Vmchester, the n.ess to which the writer belonged 
■ound sad occasion to verify the truth if not the orthc- 
raphy of our dusky brother's observation. With a lauda- 
ble desu-e to celebrate the day i„ appropriate stvle w. 
had arranged with a colored caterer to supplv ou^ mess 
table with the proverbial turkey and such other adjunct, 
as the depleted condition of our financial bureau would 
permit. The day dawned and in the early morning hour, 
our appetites for the coming feast were whetted bv an 
cggnog kindly furnished the entire company by Lieu- 
J. V. H. Allen. The Christmas sun passed its meridian 
and traveled on toward its setting with no Tosln.a to 
stay Its course. The appointed dinner hour came as all 
appomted times do, but the proveri>ial turkev came not 
with adjuncts or without. With our gastronomic hopes' 
knocked finally into pi, but not mince pie, we sat down 
at last to our hardtack and bacon, lamenting in our hearts 
the uncertainty of "aught that wades, or soars, or shines 
beneath the stars." Whether the roost, from whic!, our 
c.aerer expected io supply our larder was too well guard- 
c<l on the preceding night, or whether the rating^ <.iven 
our mess by the commercial agencies was unsatisfactory 



A CHANGE OF BASE. 43" 

has remained through all these years an unsolved prob- 
lem. 

A TRAMP WITH STONEWALL JACKSOX. 

After our arrival in Winchester the "grape vine" ser- 
vice was again brought into requisition and rumors were 
current that we were going into winter quarters. But this 
was not "Stonevv-all Jackson's Way." His headquarters 
were in Winchester. Bath and Romney, in his depart- 
ment, were occupied by Federal troops and he deter- 
mined to oust them. On Jan. i, '62, our division, with 
Ashlby's cavalry, began the march to Bath. It was a 
bright, warm day, with a touch of spring in the air. On 
the evening of the 3rd it began to snow and for thirty- 
one days the sun did not show his face again. If any 
reader of these memories should be disposed to ques- 
tion the accuracy of this statement, I can only say that it 
is so written in the chronicles of the First Georgia Reg- 
iment as recorded in my journal for the month namecL 
That evening the wagons failed to reach our camp 
and our supper was confined to a single course— parched 
corn. Not relishing a repetition of the menu for break- 
fast, I dropped out of the ranks soon after the march 
began and tramping across the freshly fallen snow to a 
residence not far from the roadside, I found a trio of 
i-Tetty Virginia girls engineering the first cooking stove 
1 had ever seen. Reared in a country home and accus- 
tomed to rely for my daily bread on the culinary skill of 



44 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

old *'Aunt Hannah," t'lie presiding genius of an old- 
fashioned kitchen fire place six feet wide, where, with 
the tact born of long experience, she piled the ruddy 
coals on the biscuit oven lid, or fried in a skillet the 
home-made sausage and spare rib with home made la-rd, 
or broiled on a gridiron the juicy beefsteak, or piled th ; 
burning ''chunks" under the mammoth kettle that hung 
from the crane, while from its cavernous depths the air 
was laden with the aroma of ham and cabbage, this in- 
novation on old-time methods was something of a revela- 
tion. But its novelty did not diminish the rehsh with 
which I hid away in my empty anatomy the steaming 
pan cakes dished out by fair and shapely hands to a 
squad of hungry soldier, one of whom, as Bill Arp would 
say, I was glad to be which. 

On the morning of Jan. 4th we were halted in front of 
Bath, while a portion of the division was deployed on the 
left of the road for an attack upon the enemy. As the 
line of battle advanced through the snow, over a moun- 
tain ridge, and in plain view of us, Capt. Sam Crump, 
who had seen service in Mexico, said: "Well, boys, the 
ball will open now in fifteen minutes." I was only a 
stripling boy, with but limited experience as a soldier, 
and I remem.ber with what reverent respect and im- 
plicit faith I received the utterance. But the ball did not 
open. The Federals retired without resistance to Han- 
cock, Md.. six miles away, and we hurried forward in 
pursuit. Reaching the hills overlooking the Potomac 



A CHANGE OF liASE. • 4.> 

and tlic town after dark, we were standin.cr in the ron(^ 
awaitincr orders when a sudden flash illuminated the 
heavens and the regiment sank as one man into the 
snow. We thought we had struck a masked battery, but 
it was our own guns throwing grape shot into the 
woods in front. After standing an hour or two in the 
snow withou fire we bivouacked and I slept, or tried to 
sleep, on three rails with their ends resting on a stump. 
We had built a fire of rails, a favorite army fuel in those 
days. I do not remember from what species of timber 
diey were made, but I do recall the fact that it was a 
popping variety when subjected to heat. All throug;h the 
night our sleep was disturbed by the necessity of rising 
at frequent intervals to extinguish our burning blankets, 
and one man had his cap nearly burned from his head 
before it awoke him. 

Next morning Turner Ashby went over under liag of 
truce to demand the surrender of the town. During his 
absence on this mission it was rumored that he had been 
held as a prisoner and his cavalry were preparing to 
storm the town to secure his release. The report proved 
t fake and he returned, bringing Gen. Lander's refusal 
to comply. An artillery duel ensued. The Federal guns 
had to be elevated to reach our position and their balls 
striking the frozen ground would rebound Some of tlie 
boys, who had played ''town ball" at school would pre- 
tend to catch them, and would sing out: ^Caught hi:i\ 
out," wlien another would reply: "Don't count, "twa^, 



46 T^XDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

second bounce." It seemed more like a frolic than a 
fight. That night I laid aside my shoes and found them 
next morning filled with snow, while my blanket was 
covered with an inch or two of the same white mantle. 
Water was scarce and I tried to secure enough for a cup 
of coffee by melting snow in a tin cup, but found it a 
tedious process. 

On the morning of the 7th the force was withdrawn 
I0 operate against Romney. The weather at this time re- 
calls an old riiyme learned in my boyhood, which fits the 
case better than any description I could give and which 
runs thus, 

"First she blew, 
Then she snew. 
And then she thew, , 
And then she friz." 

The roads were as slick as glass. The horses had to be 
rough-shod and the wheels roug'h-locked with chains to 
cut the frozen sleet and snow in descending the hills, and 
even with these precautions the horses would fall and be 
dfagged to the bottom of the descent before a halt could 
be made. Twelve horses would be hitched to a single 
piece of artillery and details were made from each com- 
pany to push the wagons up the hills. To men not inured 
to such hardships the experience was a pretty rough one 
and the criticisms of the winter campaign made by some 
of them would not look well in a Sundav school book. 



A C'llANCrE OF iJASK. 47 

r 

Osborne Stone's Presbyterian training- would not allow 
liini to use any cuss words, but I remember that his 
\ "doi^-on-its" were frequent anrl emphatic. On Januar> 
8 we reached the "Cross Roads," and those who were 
]-ronounced by the surgeons unfit for further winter ser- 
vice were returned to Winchester. With them went the 
writer, to worrv for four weeks with typhoid fever, while 
the command went on to Rom^ney. Of the Romney trip 
1 can not speak from personal knowledge, but from the 
accounts given 1\v those who can. it was a repetition of 
the return from Hancock with its hardships, perhaps 
intensified. 

Jackson accomplished his purpose, to drive the enemy 
from his department, though at the expense of a good 
deal of exposure and sufifering to his men. 

ASHBY AND JACKSON. 

\s hard as the service was, I am glad to have had the 
opportunity of sharing it with such a man as Turner 
Ashby. He was then a colonel of cavalry. Mounted on 
his milk white steed, \vith the form of an athlete; coal 
black hair, a silky brown beard reaching nearly to his 
waist and a velvety, steel-grey eye, he was, in soul as 
well as body, an ideal cavelier. His command embraced 
some of the best blood of Virginia and he and they were 
^it types of the Old South, worthy representatives of a 
civilization, that in culture, courtesv and courage, in 



48 UNDER THE STAES AND BARS. 

honor and in honesty, the past had never equalled and 
the future will never repeat. 

Jackson had not then developed the military genius 
that afterwards rendered him so famous. The campaign 
furnished but little field for generalship, but it gave evi- 
dence of one trait in his character — to halt at no obstacle 
m the accomplishment of a purpose to benefit the cause 
ior which he fought. In personal appearance and bearing 
he and Ashby diiTfercd widely. Without gTace as a rider, 
and indifferently mounted, there was nothing in his ap- 
pearance to indicate or foreshadow the height to which 
he afterwards attained. And yet I can but cherish with 
pride the recollection that in this campaign I had the 
privilege of serving under one, who in the blood-stained 
years that followed 'Svent down to a soldier's grave with 
the love of the whole v/orld, and the name of "Stonewall 
Jackson." 

"AUNT HANNAH." 

In this connection my heart prompts me to pa^• its 
earnest tribute to one, whose memory the sketch above 
'•ecalls. Dear old Aunt Hannah. How her name brings 
I)ack to my heart and life today the glamour of the old,, 
old days, that will never come again — days when to me 
a barefoot boy, life seemed a tong and happy hoUday. I 
can see her now, her head crowned with a checkered 
handkerchief, her arms bared to the elbows, her spec- 
tacles set primly on her nose, while from her kimllv 



A CHANGE OF BASE. 4» 

€yes there slicnc the hght of a pure white soul within. 
She was only an 'humble slave, and yet her love for me 
was scarcely less than that my father and mother bore 
me and when on a summer's day in '6i my brother and 
myself left the old homestead to take our humble places 
under a new born flag, there was not a dry eye on the 
whole plantation and old Aunt Hannah wept in grief as 
pure and deep as if the clods were falling on an only 
child. 

Long years have come and gone since she was laid 
away in the narrow house appointed for all the living. 
No marble headstone marks the spot, yet I am sure the 
humble mound that lies above her sleeping dust, covers 
a heart as honest and as faithful, as patient and as gentle, 
as kindly and as true as any that rest beneath the proud- 
est monument that art could fashion, or aiTection buy. 
She reared a large family of sons and daughters. Rev. 
Charles T. Walker, the "Black Spurgeon," among them, 
transmitting to them all a character for honesty and vir- 
tue marked even in those, the better days of the repub- 
hc. 

Wisely or otherwisely, in the order of Providence, or in 
the order of Napoleon's "heavier battalions," we have 
in this good year of our Lord not only a New South, but 
a new type of Aunt Hannah. The old is, I fear, a lost 
Pleiad, whose light will shine no more on land, or sea^ 
or sky. 



.30 UNDER THE 8TARS AND BARS^ 

A RIDE WITH BELLE BOYD, THE CONEEDER- 

ATE SPY. 

f 

On a page of the writer's scrap book, underneath a 
roll of the Oglethorpes and in friendly contact with the 
parole granted me at Johnston's surrender, is a slip of 
paper pocket-worn, and yellow with age, which reads as 
follows: ••Winchester, Va., Mar i, 1862. Pass W. A. 
Clark and brother today on Valley Road. By order Maj. 
Gen. T. J. Jackson. M. M. Sibert, Captain and Provost 
Marshall." Thereby hangs the following tale: On my 
return to Winchester, after the tramp to Hancock, I had 
secured lodgings at the home of a Mrs. P'olk^ where for 
uearly four weeks, I lay with my pulses throbbing with 
fever. From that sick bed two incidents come back vivid- 
ly today over the waste of years that have intervened. 
My hostess, whose kindness I shall never forget, had a 
daughter, Nellie, who, as a rustic friend of mine would 
say, was something of a "musicianer." Patriotic songs 
were all the rage and one evening as I lay on my bed 
restless from fever and trying to sleep, she began in the 
parlor below to sing the "Bonnie Blue Flag." The copy 
used had, I think, eleven verses, and in my nervous con- 
dition the entertainment seemed endless. Just as I had 
congratulated myself on its conclusion, a young gentle- 
man called and insisted on a repetition of the program 
with his vocal accompaniment, and she was kind enough 
to comply, without skipping a verse. I can not recall a 
musical entertainment that my condition forced me to 



A CHANGE OF BASE. ;j, 

appreciate less though cheerfully acqiiittino- her of any 
malice aforethought in the matter. 

As I lay on my bed during all those weeks and looked 
on the white-mantled hills that environed the town T 
remember distinctly how intensely- my parched lips 
craved the cooling touch oi the pure white snow. But 
like l^antalus, I was forced day after day to gaze on a 
Juxury I could not enjoy, for the medical science of that 
day said nay. Tempora mtttantur, and doctors change 
with them. 

Before I had recovered sufficiently to leave my bed 
Stonewall Jackson decided to evacuate Winchester and 
ordered all the convalescent sick to be moved. Having 
no desire to complete my recovery in a Federal prison 
my brother secured the pass above referred to and seats 
in the hack to Strasburg. There were nine passengers 
and among them was Belle Boyd, the Confederate Spy. 
Her home was in Martinsburg and her father a Major 
in the Confederate army. Her mother had forced her to 
leave home on the approach of the Federal army. On its 
first visit to Martinsburg she had remained there. Hav- 
ing a soldier friend in the hospital and uncertain as to 
the treatment he would receive from the enemy, she had 
taken two of her father's servants to the hospital wnth a 
stretch-er, had him placed upon it and walked by his side 
through the streets to her home with a loaded pistol in 
her hand to protect him from insult or injury at their 
hands. A few days laiter a Federal soldier attempted to 



52 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

place a Union flag over the door of her home and she 
persuaded him to desist by the use of a leaden argument 
from her pistol. Another attempt to remove a Confed- 
erate flag that waved over the mantel in her parlor met 
with a similar counter-irritant, and she was molested no 
further. Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may 
be, neither of her shots hit their mark. In view of these 
facts her mother thought it prudent to send her away 
before the Union forces occupied the town again, and she 
was en route to the home of a relative in Front Royal. 
To protect myself from the chilly air during the stage 
ride I was wearing a woollen visor knitted for my broth- 
er by Miss Lucy Meredith, of Winchester, and covering 
my head and throat, leaving only my eyes exposed. With 
a woman's instinct she saw tha't I was too weak to sit 
up and arranged to give me possession of an entire seat, 
improvised a pillow of a red scarf she was wearing on 
her shoulders and in every way possible contributed to 
my ease and comfort. On reaching Strasburg she aided 
my brother in getting me into the hotel, arranged a 
lounge in the parlor for me, brought my supper and en- 
tertained me durmg- the meal, refusing to eat anything 
herself until I had finished. After supper she sat by me 
and talked to me for an hour, and then, thinking I was 
weary, she moved the lamp in a corner of the room 
shading it from my eyes with her scarf, so that I might 
sleep. After all these years my memory retains some in- 
cidents of that conversation. I remember that she told 



A CHANGE OF BASE. 53 

ine something of her child Hfe; that when a httle girl 
she iiad been a member of Dave Strother's party in his 
tonr through Virginia, which he described so charming- 
ly in the early numbers of Harper's Magazine over the 
nom de plume of 'Torte Crayon;" that Gen. Lander, 
\vlio commanded the Federal troops, that we had driven 
from- Bath into Maryland, was an old sweetheart of her's; 
that Dave Strother was a member of his stafT. and she 
intended to cut his acquaintance. 

I remember that she said further that she had 
])cen hurt by a remark made to her that day 
by a soldier about the seeniing boldness of Virginia girls; 
that soldiers mistook kindness and the expression cf a 
desire to serve ihem for boldness; that she intended 
coming to Georgia after the war to get married She left 
on the next train for her destination, and I saw her no 
m.ore. She had impressed me as one of kindcj^t and gen- 
tlest of women and yet a year or two later she forded the 
Potomac alone in a storm at midnight to carry important 
information to her brother in Stuart's cavalry. Perhaps 
with w^oman as well as man 

"The bravest are the tenderest, 
The loving are the daring." 

If necessity had required it I believe she w^ould have 
led the charge of Pickett's Division at Gettysburg with- 
out a tremor. 

In the years that follov/ed she became a noted spy, 



54 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

going into the Federal lines and securing information, 
which she sent or carried to the Confederate army. She 
was finallv arrested and sent tO' Washington as a prisoner. 
It was reported that slie married the Federal officer, to 
whose oversight she had been entrusted and that he 
joined the Confederate army. Some of her methods as 
a- spy subjected her to harsh and hostile criticism, but in 
grateful memory of her kindness to one, who was only a 
private soldier, without rank or social prestige, one who 
had no claim upon her service save that in an hum-ble 
way he had tried to serve the cause she loved and in that 
service had grown sick and helpless, her name has never 
passed my lips except in tones of fervent gratitude and 
reverent respect. 

VIRGINIA. 

As my service as a soldier on Virginia soil was now 
about to end and as that service carried me afterwards 
into six other states of the Confederacy, in four of them 
lengthening into months or years, it may not l)e amiss 
to say in this connection that judged by that experience, 
Virginia stood above them all in kindly feeling and hos- 
pitable treatment to the Confedereate soldier. Furnish- 
ing to the army perhaps a larger quota of her sons than 
any other State, her territory tracked by the tread of hos- 
tile armies for four bloody years, her homes destroyed 
and her fields laid waste, her generous kindness and her 
active sympathy for the suffering soldier never wavered 
to tihe end. 



A CHANGE OF BASE. 55 

While the South as a whole gave to the world the 
highest type of civilization it had ever known, Virginia, 
as I believe, stood at its head, the capstone in the fairest 
structure the sun has gilded since the morning stars 
sang together, an.! garlanding its summit like a glisten- 
ing coronal, bright with the light of immortality stands 
the name and fame of Robert Edward Lee. 

HOME AGAIN. 

The 1st Ga. Regiment was the only infantry organiza- 
tion from this State mustered out at the expiration of its 
first vear's service. The Conscript Act became effective 
in the spring of '62, and succeeding regiments, whose 
terms expired later were under its provision retained in 
the service. On the return of the command from Rom- 
ney the ist Ga. was ordered to Tennessee. Going by rail 
to Lynchburg, a railroad accident occasioned some de- 
lay at that point and as their time would have expired in 
a few days they were sent to Augusta to be mustered 
out. 

Mv brother, knowing that I would not be strong 
enough to rejoin the command before its term of service 
ended decided to take me directly home. And so by 
stage and rail, with tiresome delays at every junction, 
in the deepening twilight of a fair spring day, weak and 
weary, I came in sight of the old homestead once more. 
Over the joy and gladness of such a meeting after an 
.'jbsence, everv dav of which had seemed to those 1 hul 



5o UNDER THE STARS AKD BARS. 

left ])e]iin.1. an age of agony and dread, it is meet that the 
man.tle of silence should fall. Tlie halo tha^t came to :ath- 
€rs and mothers hearts in those old days when their 
''boys" came home from, the war, seemed like a breath 
from Heaven. It was sacred then and to me it is sacred 
stiil. Loving lips, that gave me glad welcome that spring 
day have long been cold and silent, and eyes that shone 
through misty tears are dim in death. Some time in the 
coming months or years, I know not when, and yet in 
God's good time, in weakness and in weariness at even- 
tide on some spring day again, it may be, I shall, I trust, 
go "home again:" not to the old homestead hallowed as 
it is by a mother's love and a father's prayers, and yet to 
find hartl by the River of Life from lips long silent, a 
v/elcome just as loving in "a city whose builder and 
maker is Tiod." 

ROSTER OF OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, 

Co. D, 1st Ba. Regt 

Capt. J. O. Clarke, promoted Lieut. Col. ist Ga. Rtg. 

Capt. Horton B. Adams. 

1st Sieut. J. V. H. Allen. 

2d Lieut. Geo. W. Crane. 

30 Lieut. S. B. Simmons. 

1st Serg. A. J. Setze. 

■2d Serg. W. S. Holmes. 

,3(1 Serg. S. C. Foreman. 

-iLM Serg. L. A. Picquet. 



A CHANGE OF BA8E. 57 



1st Corp. O. M. Stone. 
2d Corp. Jesse W. Rankin 
3d Corp. Chas H. Roberts 
4th Corp. Bnrt O. Miller. 



PRIVATES 



Alfred M. Averill. 
Dillard Adams 
A. E. Andrews. 
A. W. Bailey. 
F. A. Beall. 
A. W. Blanchard. 
R. M. Booker. 
Jno. M. Bunch. 
Thos. Burgess. 
Milton A. Brown. 
A. J. Burroughs. 
\Vm. Bryson. 
Chas. Catlin. 
H. A. Cherry. 
H. B. Clark. 
F W. Clark. 
V/m. H. Clark. 
Walter A. Clark. 
W. J. Cloyd. 
Jno. R Coffin. 
E. F. Clayton. 
€. S. Crag. 



58 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

Wm. Craig- 

J. B. Crumpton. 

Wilberforce Daniel. 

Ed. Darby. 

Joseph T. Derry. 

T. J. Doughty. 

C. W. Doughty. 

W. R. Doyle. 

B. B. Doyle, 

Jno. P. Duncan. 

S. H. Dye. 

E. A. Dunbar. 

Geo. \V. Evans. 

Robert C. Eve. 
Sterling C. Eve. 

L. F. Flming. 

H. Clay Foster. 
W. Harrison Foster. 
John P. Foster. 
Willie Goodrich. 
J. P. Goodrich. 
C. M. Goodwin. 
W. A. Griffin. 
A. G. Hall. 
E. H. Hall. 
^Vm. Plaight. 
J. J. Harrell. 
Frank M. Hight. 



A CHANGE OF BASE. 69- 



Jno. C. Hill. 

Harry Hughes. 

Jno. T. Hiingerford. 

V. (\. Hitt. 

H. B. Jackson. 

W. F. Jackson. 

A. M. Jackson. 

Whit G. Johnson. 

W. H. Jones. 

W. E. Jones. 

G. A. Jones. 

Matt Kean. 

W. H. Kennedy. 

W. T. Lamar. 

Jas. Lam-ar. 

Geo. G. Leonhardt. 

D. W. Little. 

P. E. Love. 

A. D. Marshall. 

C. O. Marshall. 

Geo. W. McLaughlin, 

C. E. McCarthy. 
J. T. McGran. 

D. W, Mongin. 
R. B. Morris. 
W. B. Morris. 
Z. B. Morris. 
W. T. Miller. 



€0 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

Josiah Miller. 
Geo. D. Mosher. 
M. C. Murphey. 
W. E. Peay. 
A Pilcher. 
J. T. Newberry. 
F. M. Pope. 
Geo. P. Poumelle. 
W. P. Ramsey. 
J. T. Ratcriff. 
J. fl. ReviU. 
A. J. Rhodes. 
J. A. Rhodes. 
J. P. Roberts. 
J. C Roebuck. 
W. A. Roll. 
J. W. Rigsby. 
S H. Sheppard. 
L W. Shed. 
L. W. Stroud. 
Fred W. Stoy. 
Jno. W. Sroy. 
Alonzo Smith. 
Miles Turpin. 
Thomas J. Tutt. 
J. E. Thomas. 
Geo. J Verdery. 
R W. Verderv. 



A CHANGE OF BASE. 61 



G. F. Wing-. 

B. H. Watkins. 

C. D. Wakins. 
Jas. E. Wilson. 
Jas. D. Wilson. 
Walter A. Wiley. 
Wm. T. Williams 
W. T. Winn. 
Wm. Whiting. 



CHAPTER 



REORGANIZATION WITH 12th GA. BATTAL- 
ION. 

On May i, 1862, the Oglethorpes were re-organized 
at Camp Jackson, on the Carnes Road, near Augusta, 
Ga., as an artillery company under Capt. J. V. H. Allen. 
Three other companies from the ist Ga. Regiment, and 
the "DeKalb Rifles" from Stone Mountain, joined us 
and the 12th Ga. Battalion was formed, with Major 
Henry D Capers as commander. We remained at this 
camp drilling for two months, and our parade ground 
became a favorite afternoon resort for the young ladies 
■of Augusta. 

A "LIT1XK LONG." 

Among the fair visitors, who honored us by their pres- 
ence. v;ere the Misses Long, two pretty and attractive 
girls, who were guests at the Savage Place, near our 
•quarters. Miles Turpin, one of the company witS; fell a 
victim to the charms of the younger one. wl.'o in physi- 
cal make-up was rather petite. When his attack had 
reached the acute .vtage, he was being joked about it one 
<lay and gave vent to his feelings in the following re- 
vised version of Goldsmith's familiar lines: 



KEORGANIZATIOX AVITH 12th GA. BATT'N. m 

I want but little here below. 
But -vant "tliat little I.on^sr." 

Miles was not the only wit in the Company. Every 
branch in Phil Schley's family tree must have shed puns 
as an (ordinary tree sheds leaves wdien touched by the 
breath of winter. Lon Fleming w'as crossing the grounds 
at Cai np Jackson one day with a cha-r slung over his 
left shoulder, wrhen he was hailed by Phil "Lon, you are 
most cheerful man P've seen today." "Yes." said Lon, 
"over the left" Lest some of my readers may fail to see 
the point, it may be prudent to say that when Phil and I 
were bovs, "chair" in the piney woods was pronounced 
"cheer." This w^as not one of Phil's best nor, perhaps, 
one of his worst. It would probably grade about "strict 
low^ middling." Aside from this hereditary punning pro- 
pensity, from which my old comrade has reasonf.bly re- 
covered, I am glad to recall his unfailing good humor 
and his readiness to meet the dangers and hardships of 
the service bravely and without a murmer. 

THE i2th GA. BATTALION FLAG. 

On July 4th,, '62, Miss Pinkie Evans, of Augusta, 
presented to the battalio'n a beautiful silk battle flag 
m.ade, it was said, from her mother's wedding robe. Her 
patriotic address in making the presentation was re- 
sponded to by Maj. Capers, who accepted the colors for 
the battalion 

As the Oglethorpes were transferred from the battal- 



64 UNDER THK STARS AND BARS. 

ion in the fall of 1862, we had no opportunity of lighting 
under their banner save at the skirmish at Huntsville, 
Tennessee. It was afterwards bravely borne on many a 
bloody battlefield, under Evans and Gordon in Maryland 
and Virginia. Seven color-bearers were shot down un- 
der its silken folds. During the second heavy bombard- 
ment of Fort Sumter, lasting from Oct. 26 to Dec. 6, 
1863, the I2th Ga. Battalionformed a part of its garrison. 
On Oct. 31st the fiag of the fort was shot down and was 
replaced by Serg. Graham, Will Hitt and Bob Swain, of 
Augusta, then serving with the 12th Ga. Batt. It was 
shot down again on the same day and its stafif so badly 
sliattered that it could not be hoisted The same brave 
men went up on the parapet, amid the storm of solid 
shot and shell and raised their own 12th Ga. flag. When 
the Confederate line was broken at Cedar Creek. Serg. 
Hopps of Crump's company, bore this flag, and disdain- 
ing to fly, he held his ground alone, waving his colors 
defiantly at the advancing line of blue until he was 
killed. Afred Wallen, of the same company, a beardless 
boy, but a brave one, saw him fall and running back at 
the risk of his own life, tore the flag from its staff and 
brought it in safety to his command It is said these 
colors were not surrendered at Appomatox, but were 
returned to their fair donor unstained save by the blood 
of the gallant Baker and King and Stalhngs and Hopps, 
who in the shock of battle had gone down to death under 
their silken folds. 



REORGANIZATION WITH 12x11 GA. BATT'N. 6;> 
OFF TO THE FRONT 

Buell was threatening Chattanooga, and Maj. Capers- 
was ordered to report with his battalion to Gen. Mc- 
Cown at that point Leaving Augusta July 5th in two 
special trains, we were detained at Ringgold, Ga., for a 
day or two by a collision with a freight train, which re- 
sulted in the death of ten or twelve men and fifteen or 
twenty horses, and in injuries more or less serious to a 
larger number. Reaching Chattanooga July 8, we re 
mained there ten days and were then transferred by N. 
& C. R. R. to a point near Shell Mound, Ala. Picketing 
here for two weeks in front of Buell's army we returned 
to Chattanooga Aug. i, and on the next day left for 
Knoxville with the intention, I suppose, of accompanying 
Kirby Smith's army into Kentucky. Two days at Knox- 
ville and we are off for Clinton. En route a courier 
brings information that the enemy has attacked our 
forces at Tazewell, twenty miles away, and we are order- 
ed to hurry forward to reinforce Gen. Stevenson at that 
point. An hour later another dispatch is received that the 
attack has been repulsed and we are sidetracked at Clin- 
ton to aid in the capture or dispersion of the 7th Tenn. 
Federal regim-ent, then occupying a fortified camp near 
Huntsville, Tenn. 

COL. HOGELAND AND HIS WAR DIARY. 

How strangely human events sometimes shape them- 
selves without apparent effort to control them Sitting 



66 UNDEK THE STARS AND BARS. 

in my home some weeks ago in the dreamy haze of an 
October Sunday afternoon, there chanced to fall under 
:my eye in the editorial column of a Sunday school paper 
the statement that Col. Alexander Hogeland of Louis- 
ville, Ky., had visited Nashville, Tenn., in the interest of 
the ''Curfew Law." Other items in the column caused a 
•momentary disturbance of my brain cells, then passed 
•away to be recalled no more. But this one lingered in 
my memory and would not down, for thereby hangs the 
following tale: 

The expedition against the Federal force at Hunts- 
ville was commanded by Col. Gracie, of Alabama, and 
consisted of the 12th Ga. Battalion, a portion of an Ala- 
bama regim.ent, and a few cavalry. Leaving Clinton at 4 
p. m., Aug. 12, we camped near Jacksonboro on the 
night of the 13th and on the morning of the 14th started 
for Huntsville by a rough mountain path that crossed a 
spur of the Cumberland range. After a toilsome tramp 
we halted at 9 p. m. and after an hour's rest were again on 
the march. The path is narrow and the overarching trees 
shut out every ray of starlight. Groping along in the 
dark we follow the tramp of the feet in front, reachino- 
out occasionally to touch the file just ahead, lest our ears 
have deceived us Our pathway passes on the edge of a 
precipitous bluff and my brother in Crump's company 
loses his footing and topples over it. The fall fails to dis- 
able him, but he loses his hat and in the darkness is 
unable to recover it. Hatless he rejoins the command 



REORGANIZATION WITH 12th GA. BATT'N. 67 

and. the procession moves on. Just before daylight we 
bait for another rest. At 5 a. m. we resume the march 
and in the early morning reach the vicinity of the Fed- 
eral camp. Deploying into line of battle we advance 
through a belt of woodland and entering a cornfield be- 
yond, onr right is fired upon by the Federal pickets. As 
we drive them in a scattering fire is kept up until we 
come in sight of their camp and near it a rude log forr 
built upon the crest of a tall hill,, over whose precipitous 
slope the forest trees have been felled, making an al- 
most impassable abattis. While arrangements are being 
made for an attack upon the fort, Tom Tutt and the 
writer, who are both on the color guard, see a thin line 
four or five hundred yards to our right, near a church, 
and whom we take to be the pickets, who had been re- 
sisting our advance. Tom, whose rule is to shoot at 
everything in sight, selects his man and fires and the 
writer follows suit. We load and fire again. After a few 
rounds I become convinced that it is a portion of Capt. 
Crump's company, which had been detached and sent 
to the right and in which I have two brothers. As Tom 
raises his gun again I said, "Hold on, Tom, you are 
shooting at your o nu company." He made no reply and 
continued firing until the order to advance was given A 
deep gully lay partially in our front and as its passage 
caused some confusion in the ranks, we halted to reform 
the line. Crump's company was hurrying forward to join 
us and before they had reached their position in fine Col. 



68 rXDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

Gracie gave the command, "Charge." From underneath 
the head logs of the fort the Belgian rifles were barking 
at us and the heavy balls they carried whistled by us like 
young shells. We were waiting for Crump, and Gracie, 
ignorant of the cause of the delay, shouted: ''What is 
the matter with the 12th Ga. Battalion?" Just then a 
lone cavadrymiaii passed Lhe line on foot and with drawn 
sabre made his way towards the fort with the evident 
intention of capturing the whole business himself. 
Crump's company came up at a 'double quick" and the 
whole line moved forward with a yell. Sergeant Harwell, 
our color-bearer, had never been under fire and the boys, 
uncertain as to his grit, had asked Tom Tutt, who d'd 
not know what fear meant, to take the colors when the 
charge began. Tom made the effort to seize them, hut 
Harwell, a tall, gaunt man, and brother of two honored 
Methodist preachers, decHned to give them up and bore 
them forward bravely. As we advanced the fire from' the 
fort suddenly ceased and we thought they were waiting 
to see the whites of our eyes. Reaching the steep ascent 
we climbed up over logs and brush until the fort was 
gained. Lieut. Joe Taliaferro, of Augusta, was the first 
to enter, and with his sword cut down the floating flag. 
The fort w^as empty— not a Yankee to be seen. Under 
cover of the thick forest growth in their rear they had 
hied to other haunts, under the idea, perhaps, that 

"He who fights and runs away, 
Will live to fight another dav." 



REORGANIZATION WITH 12tii GA. BATT'N. (31) 

'llieir camp, located just below the fort gave ample 
evidence of their hasty exit Our attack was somethings 
of a "surprise party" and their unfinished morning meal 
was boiling, baking and frying on the camp fires. We 
were unexpected and uninvited guests and yet our recep- 
tion was v;arm, although unfriendly Our all-night tramp 
enabled us to do full justice to the breakfast they had 
prepared, as well as the sugar cured hams and other su.p- 
pHes their commissary had kindly left for our use. We 
appropriated an ample outfit of blankets, canteens, 
haversacks, etc., and burned what we could not carry 
away. 

The skirmish on our side, and probably on theirs ^^•a^ 
almost bloodless. W. W. Bussey, of the Oglethorpes, 
and Garyhan, of Crump's company, were slightly 
wounded. I recall no other casualty except the kiUing of 
a nice horse ridden by Col. Gracie. 

And now what has all this to do with the item I read 
in a Sunday school paper? Simply this: Among the assets 
and effects secured that day by the writer from the ofH- 
cer's tent aaid administered upon without "Letter's Tes- 
tamentary" was a pocket diary belonging to Capt. Alex- 
ander Hogeland, of the loth Indiana Regt. On reading 
the paragraph referred to, the coincidence in names sug- 
gested the possibiHty that Col. Alexander Hogeland, of 
Louisville, Ky., 'Tather of the Curfew," might have been 
Capt. Alexander Hogeland, of the loth Ind. Regt., whose 
property had been in my possession for thirty-seven 



70 UNDER THE STAES AND BAES. 

years. To test the matter, I wrote Col. Hogeland and 
from his reply the following extract is taken: "Your 
deeply interesting favor of the 4th inst received and for 
the information it contains accept my hearty thanks I 
am the identical person referred to in your letter. Was 
first lieutenant Co. D, loth Indiana Regiment in the 
West Virginia campaign and afterwards Captain of Co. 
G. In May, '62, was made lieutenant-colonel of 7th East 
Tennessee Regiment, commanded by Col. Wm. Cliff, 
a'nd stationed at Huntsville, Tenn., in August, '62. We 
lost everything on the occasion you refer to and this is 
the first information I have received as to the where- 
abouts of my effects. I am very glad to avail myself of 
your proffer to return my diary and enclose herewith 
necessary postage." Col. Hogeland's diary was duly re- 
turned to him and in acknowledging its receipt he took 
occasion to thank me for looking him up after all these 
years and assured me that he would endeavor to return 
that kindness by visiting Augusta in the early future and 
giving the citizens of this goodly city the benefit of the 
"Curfew Law." It will furnish additional evidence of the 
truthfulness of the opening statement in this sketch if the 
capture of a war diary nearly forty years ago, should 
result in the adoption of a "Curfew" ordinance in Au- 
gusta. 

In illustration of the adage that "Ever}- dog has his 
day," it may not be amiss to say that Col. Hogeland's 
escapade from Fort Cliff at the instance of four com- 



KEORGANIZATIOX WITH 12Tn GA. liATT'X. 71 

panics of the old First Georgia Regiment, was only par- 
tial compensation for the loo-mile run made by those 
self-same companies from Laurel Hill, Va., in '6i, with 
Capt. Hogeland's regiment as one of the exciting causes. 

JACKSBORO. 

On our return from Huntsville, Joe Derry and J. W. 
Lindsay, of the Oglethorpes, unable to keep pace with 
the command, straggled and were captured by ''bush- 
whackers " Joe was exchanged a few days, later, Lind- 
say preferrng to remain a prisoner. After a short stay at 
Clinton we moved up to Jacksboro and remained 
there until Oct. 9th, guarding Bragg's line of communi- 
cations. Our service at this place was uneventful. BuelFs 
army had retreated into Kentucky and there was nothing 
to disturb our ''otium cum dignitate" save a moderate 
amount of picket duty and the one subject ever upper- 
most in the soldier's mind — "rations." The following inci- 
dents of our stay at this camp furnish some illustrations 
of this fact: 

THE PARSON AND THE GRAVY. 
A continuous diet of salt bacon had made the boys 
ravenous for fresh meat and as war has no tendency to 
strengthen respect for property rights where a soldier's 
appetite is involved, they were not, as a rule, very scrupu- 
lous as to the methods adopted to procure a supply. The 
means most in use at the date referred to were known in 
camp parlance as 'flip ups." As no encyclopedia of my 



72 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS 

acquaintance describes this mechanical contrivance and 
its specifications have never encumbered the records of 
the patent office, it may not be amiss to say that it con- 
sisted of a bent sapling, a slip noose with a trigger at- 
tachment and a bait of corn. The unsuspecting porker, 
tempted by the bait, sprang the trigger and the sapling 
freed from its confinement, sought to resume its normal 
position, wliile the shote caught in the noose and par- 
tially suspended in the air gave noisy notice that the 
game v/as up. 

On one occasion the catch, by right of discovery or 
otherwise, fell to a mess, of which Parson H — , a min- 
ister of the Presbyterian persuasion, wa.s a member. 
When dinner was served that day a dish of smoking 
pork chops was passed to the Parson, but he declined 
with the remark that his conscience did not allow him 
to eat stolen meat. As the meal progressed the fragrant 
odor froni' the dish struck his olfactories with increasing- 
ly tempting force and he finally passed up his tin plate 
and said: 'T'll take a little of the gravy if you please." 
He had made a brave fight for principle and his final 
compromise was probably due to the fact that Paul's 
vow, 'Tf meat make my brother to offend I will eat no 
flesh While the world standth," failed to include gravy in 
its inhibtion. Pie may have been furthr influenced' by the 
reflection that his refusal to indulge could not possibly 
restore the porker to hfe again. As Jim Wilson said, 

" 'Twas Greece (grease), but living Greece no more." 



KKOH(iANIZATI()X WITH lirii GA. HATT'N. 73 

This incident recalls the fact that Jim and the writer 
had on this subject the same scruples as the Parson, and 
in order to place ourselves on the line of strongest resis- 
tence we entered into an agreement with each other 
binding ourselves to total abstinence from all meat of 
questionable origin until mutually released from the 
obligation. The compact was religiously observed until 
Hood's campaign in Tennessee in the winter of'64. 
Transportation was scarce and rations were scarcer. On 
one occasion two ears of corn were issued to each sold- 
ier. Some wag in the company, probably Elmore Dun- 
bar, seeing that horse rations were being furnished sang 
out', -come and get your fodder." On another occasion 
beef was issued but no bread. We had neither lard to fry 
nor salt to season, but our digestive apparatus was not 
then fastidious as to condiments. It was unimportant 
whether it was taken ''cum grano salis" or without, so 
the void was filled. 

A fire was built of dried limbs from a brush pile and 
the beef placed in a shallow frying pan to stew, Frank 
Stone being the chef de cuisine. The mess sat around 
with anxious faces and whetted appetites. Finally one of 
them, in shifting his position, struck the end of a limb on 
which .the pan was resting and dumped the whole bus- 
iness into the dirt and ashes. The catastrophe placed us 
rather than the beef in a stew and we went to bed sup- 

perless. 

Under such conditions it is, perhaps, but natural that 



74 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

the case should be re-opened, a new trial granted and a 
verdict rendered to follow Paul's other injunction, 
"Whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no questions 
for conscience sake." 

I can not recall positively that either of us ever in- 
dulged even as to gravy, but I think I can say that neith- 
er of us was particepts crimdnis in the act of impress- 
ment. If guilty, we were only accessories after the fact. 

"THEM MOLASES." 

During our stay at Jacksboro tlie farmers in ^hat 
section were making sorghum syrup, which most of them 
called "them molasses." Near one of our picket posts 
lived a Baptist minister named Lindsay, from whose bet- 
ter half we purchased vegetables and other edibles. On 
one occassion I was unable to make exact change and 
left owing her 12 1-2 cents in Confederate money. Two 
weeks later I was on picket againand paid her the bal- 
ance due. She was so much surprised that a soldier 
should have the moral sense to recognize and meet such 
an obligation that she formed ai very exalted estimate of 
my honesty and when I afterwards went to buy some of 
"them molasses" she requested her husband to take it 
from a barrel she had reserved for her own use "for," 
he said "she likes 'em powerful thick." I had occasion to 
regret her kindness, for it was so thick that it was with 
difficulty that I could get it either into or out of my can- 
teen^ and in view of her partiality I did not have the heart 



KKOHU 



ANIZv\TION WITH 12tii GA. BATT'K. 75 



to sngg-est that a thinner grade would be preferred. She 
was a kind and motherly soul, and yet some of the sold- 
iers would steal from her. To prevent or minimize their 
depredations she cooped a noisy rooster undernearth her 
bedroom as a sort of watch dog to notify her of any mid- 
night foragers A few mornings afterwards she awoke to 
find, aside from other losses, that her feathered sentinel 
had' been caught asleep upon his post by som^e soldier, 
who was chicken-mouthed, if he was not chicken-hearted. 

RATIONS. 

Rations as one of the sinews of war, deserve something 
more than incidental mention in these memories and as 
no more favorable opportunity may occur, it may be as 
well to give them more extended notice in connection 
with the incident just related. 

Confederate rations during the early years of the war 
were as I recollect them, not only fair in quality but am- 
ple in quantity. As evidence of this fact I remember that 
the bovs were sometimes so indififerent when rations 
hour arrived that it was dif^cult to induce them to draw 
their allowance promptly. Charles Catlin was our com- 
pany commissary and I can hear now his clear, sharp 
tones as they rang out on the frosty evening air among 
the Virginia mountains in '6i, "Come up and get your 
beef. Are you going to keep a man standing out here in 
the cold all night?" 

As the war progressed the resources of the Confeder- 



76 UXDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

acy, limited to Its own production by the cordon of hos- 
tile gunboats that girded its ports, became more and 
more heavily taxed and its larder grew leaner and leaner. 
But little wheat was raised in the Gulf States and few 
beeves except in Texas. We were reduced largely to meal 
and bacon rations, and the supply of these sometimes 
recalled the instructions in regard to loading a squirrel 
rifle g"iven by its owner to a friend to whom he had loan- 
ed it: "Put in very little powder, if any." Cooking squads 
were detailed from each company and once a day the 
wagons would drive up and issue three small corn pones 
to each man. Some of the boys, whose hunger was 
chronic, would begin on theirs and never stop until the 
last pone had been eaten. 

Bob Winter belo^ngcd to this class and eight or ten 
hours after his daily rations had disappeared Dick Mor- 
ris would draw a pone or half a pone from his haversack 
and say, "Bob, here's some bread if you want it," and 
Bob would reply, "Dick, I don't want to take it if you 
need it," and Dick would answer, ''Bob, I've told you a 
thousand times that I wouldn't give you anything that I 
wanted," and Bob would succumb and so would the 
bread . 

When our changes of base were rapid the squads 
would cook up two or three days' rations and in hot 
weather the bread would mould and when broken open 
the fungus growth looked very much like cobweb. Some 
of the pones had also the appearance of slow convales- 



KEOKGANIZATION WITH I2i !i GA. liATT'N. 7^ 

cence from chill and fever. Under such conditions it could 
hardly be considered very palatable except upon the idea 
of a rustic friend of mine, who, in commending the vir- 
tues of India Qiolagogue, was asked as to its palatability. 
"O," said he "it's very palatable, but the meanest stuff 
to take you ever saw." 

Most of the boys had left well-to-do homes to enter the 
service and wiiile they bore privation and hunger with- 
out a murmur, there would sometimes come into their 
hard lives a craving for the good things they had left 
behind. Gathered about the camp-fire, cold and tired and 
hungry, they would discuss the dish that each liked best 
and their lips would grow tremulous as they thought of 
the day when hope would become realization. Joe Derry,, 
I remember, could never be weaned away from the 
memory of his mother' nice mince pies and black-berry 
jam. I can see his eyes dance now as he magnified their 
merits. Bob Winter's ultimate thule in the gastronomic 
line was sliced potaitoe pie, while Jim Thomas would 
never tire of singing the praises of 'possum baked with 
potatoes. Louis Picquet said to him one day, "Jim, if I 
ever get home again I am going to have one dinner o' 
'possum and 'taters if it kills me " But it was left to the 
epicurean taste of John Henry Casey to reach the acme 
of these unsatisfied longings when, recognizing the val- 
ue of quantity as well as quaUty he declared that nothing 
less would satisfy him than "a chicken pic big enough to 
trot a horse and buggy around on." 



78 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

But for extending this ration sketch to an irrational 
length I might have said something of the May Pop 
leaves that we cooked for '"greens" in North Georgia, of 
the half hardened corn transformed into meal by means 
of an improvised grater prepared by driving nails 
through the side of a tin canteen, of the pork issued to us 
in Tennessee with the hair still on it, of the hog skins 
that we ate at Inka, Miss., and of many other such 
things, but they would probably fail to interest the read- 
er as they did the actors in those far oflf days. 



CHAPTER IV. 



TRANSFERRED TO THE COAST. 

Our enlistment as artillery had so far proven a delusion 
and a snare. The Confederacy had no guns with which 
to equip us and we had found no opportunity to capture 
any. During our stay at Jacksboro Capt. Allen suc- 
ceeded in securing from the War Department the trans- 
fer of the Oglethorpes to the 2nd South Carolina Artil-^ 
lery, then in service at Charleston. Oct. 9, '62, at 6 p. 
m. we fell into line, gave three cheers for our late com- 
panions in arms and as the setting sun crimsoned with 
its last rays the lofty summit of the Cumberland, we filed 
out of the village to the tune of 

"We are sons of old Aunt Dinah, 
And we go where we've amind to 
And we stay where we're inclined to, 
And we don't care a cent." 

and our sojourn in Jacksoi^iboro was a thing of the past. 
Reaching Augusta Oct. 13, we were dismissed until 
the 23rd, when we went into camp at the Bush Ground, 
near the city. Why we did not proceed at once to our 
command in Charleston has always been to the writer an 
unsolved oroblem. We remained in Augusta until Dec. 



80 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

9, when orders were received to report to Gen . H . W . 
Mercer, at Savannah. Col. Geo. A. Gordon, in com- 
mand of the 13th Ga. Battalion was endeavoring to raise 
it to a regiment. As he lacked two companies and as the 
Oglcthorpes had 120 men on its roll an effort was made 
to divide the company. On Dec. 11 a vote was taken, 
the result showing a majority against division. Dec 15 
we were formally attached to the 63rd Ga. Regiment, 
ranking as Co. A. Our quarters were located just in tlie 
rear of Tljunderbolt Battery and here w^e remained for 
more tlian twelve months in the discharge of semi-gar- 
rison duty. 

A .STUDY IN INSECT LIFE. 

The period covered by our service on the coast foim- 
ed a sort of oasis in our military life. The Federal gun- 
boats were kind enough to extend social courtesies to us 
only at long range and longer intervals. We fought and 
bled, it is true, but not on the firing line. The foes that 
troubled us most, were the fleas and sand fles and mos- 
quitoes that infested that sections. They never failed to 
open the spring campaign promptly and from their 
attacks by night and day no vigilance on the picket line 
could furnish even slight immunity. If the old time 
practice of venesection as a therapeutic agent was cor- 
rect in theory our hygienic condition ought to have been 
comparatively perfect. During the ''flea season" it was 
not an unusual occurrence for the bovs after fruitless 



TRANSFERRED TO THE COAST. sL 

efforts to reach the land of vlroanis, to rise from their 
couclies, divest themselves of their hickory shirts an^' 
break the silence of the midnight air by vigorously 
threshing them against a convenient tree in the hope of 
finding temporary "surcease of sorrow" from this ever- 
present affliction. It was said t'hat if a handfull of sand 
were picked up half of it would jump away. I can not 
vouch for the absolute correctness of this statement, but 
I do know that I killed, by actual count, one hundred 
and twenty fleas in a single blanket on which I had slept 
the preceding night and I can not recall that the morn- 
ing was specially favorable for that species of game 
either. I remember further that as we had in camp no 
"Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," I 
corked up an average specimen of these insects to see 
how long he would live without his daily rations. At the 
end of tw^o weeks he had grown a trifle thin, but was still 
a very lively corpse. But these were not the only "ills, 
that made calamity of so long a life," for as Moore 
might have said, if his environment had been different, 
"Oft in the stilly night, 

Ere slumber's chain had bound me, 
I felt the awful bite 

Of 'skeeters buzzing 'round me." 

TheJr bills were presented on the first day of the 
day of the month and, unfortunately, on every other 
day. At our picket stations on Wilmington and White 
marsh Islands and at the "Spindles" on tlie river where 



82 UJ^DER THE STARS AND BARS. 

the young alligators atmised themselves by crawling up 
on the bank and stealing our rations, there was a larger 
variety known as gallinippers, from whose attacks the 
folds of a blanket thrown over our faces was not full 
protection 

But there were still others. On dress parade in the 
-afternoons, while the regiment was tanding at "parade 
rest" and no soldier was allowed to move hand or foot 
until Richter's band, playing Capt. Sheppards Quick 
step, had completed its daily tramp to the left of the line 
and back to its position on the right, the sandflies seem- 
ed to be aware of our helplessness and "in prejudice of 
good order and military discipline" were especially vic- 
ious in their attack upon every- exposed part of our 
anatomy. Capt. C. W. Howard, I remember, was ac- 
customed to fill his ears with cotton as a partial protec- 
tion. I have seen Charlie Goetchius, while on the officers' 
line in front of the regiment, squirm and shiver in such 
apparent agony that the veins in his neck seemed ready 
to burst. Neither whistling minies, nor shrieking shells, 
nor forced marches with no meal in the barrel nor oil in 
the cruse ever seemed to disturb his equanimity in the 
slightest degree. Quietly and modestly and bravely he 
met them all. But the sandfly brigade was a little too 
much for him 

In addition to these discomforts, the salt water marsh, 
near whicli we were camped, never failed to produce a 
full crop of chills and fever as well as of that peculiar 



TRANSFERRED TO THE COAST. 83 

Species of crabs known as ' ' fiddlers. ' ' Gen . Early was once 
advised by one of his couriers that the Yankees were in 
his rear. ''Rear the d — 1," said old Jubal. *'T've got no 
rear. I'm front all round." These fiddlers seemed to be 
in the same happy condition. Their physical conforma- 
tion was such that no mattre from what side they were 
approached, they retired in am exactly oppsite direction 
without the necessity of chaing-ing front. But of the 
chills. Of the one hundred and fifteen men in our ranks 
only three escaped an attack of this disease. The writer 
was fortunately one of the three. One man had fifty- 
three chills before a furlough was allowed him. Quinine 
was scarce and boneset tea and flannel bandages saturat- 
ed with turpentine were used as substitutes. Whiskey was 
sometimes issued as a preventative. In pursuance of a 
resolution formed on entering the service I never tasted 
the whiskey and as soon as my habit on this line became 
known, I was not subjected to the trouble of looking up 
applicants for the extra ration. The dearth in medical 
supplies recalls other facts showing the straits to which 
the Confederacy was reduced on other lines by the 
blockade O'f its ports. Letters written in '63, and now in 
my possession, show that my brother, then Assistant 
Surgeon at Tallahassee, Fla., could not purchase in that 
place a pair of suspenders nor a shirt collar — that my 
mess could not buy an oven in Savannah, though willing 
to pay $30 for it and that I ordered shoes for Capt. Pic- 
quet, and other members of the company from a Mr. 



84 UNDEK THE STARS AND BARS. 

Campbell at Richmond Factory, as no suitable ones 
conld be had in Savannah. 

Our service at Thunderbolt was entirely devoid of 
any exciting incident or episode in a martial way. If the 
company fired a single shot at a Yankee during our stay 
I can not recall it. On one occasion 8 or lo voluteers 
from each reg-iment stationed there were wanted for "a 
secret and dangerous expedition," as it was termed in 
the order There was a ready response from the Ogle- 
th'orpes for the entire number wanted from the regiment. 
Among those voluteers I recall the names of W. J. 
Steed, J. E. Wilson, R. B. Morris, J. C. Kirkpatrick and 
F. T. Stone. We never knew whether it was a contem- 
plated attack on Fort Pulaski or the capture of a Fed- 
eral gunl^oat; as "he expedition failed to materialize. 

April i8, '6s, Henry Wombke of the Oglethorpes, was 
drowned while bathing in \\ arsaw Sound, and on Julv 
12. '63, John Quincy Adams, while returning from picke:. 
at the S}3indles was accidentally shot bv George Mosher, 
who had gone up on the boat to kill alligators. 

Some official changes tQok place in the company dur- 
ing our stay at this camp. To fill the vacancv occasioned 
by the resignation of Lieut. W. G. Johnson. Charles T. 
Goetchius was elected, but I have no record of the date. 
On July 5, '62,, the death of Major John R. Giles resulted 
in the promo'tion on July 12, of Capt J. V. H. Allen to 
that field office in the regiment. Louis Picquet became 
captain of the company, and on July 14, Geo. W. ^Ic- 
Laughlin was elected [r. 2nd. Lieut. 



TRANSFEliliEI) TO THE COAST. 85 

As a part of the ''res gestae" of our soldier life at 
Thunderbolt, the following- incident may be of some 
interest: 

SOAP AND WATER. 

Yly earliest recollections of Thunderbolt is associated 
with a fruitless effort to mix turpentine soap and salt 
water. We had reached the place tired and dusty and 
dirty. As soon as the ranks were broken, the boys divest- 
ed themselves of their clothing and soaping their bodies 
thoroughly plunged into the salt water for a bath. The 
result may be imagined. The dirt and dust accumulated 
in streaks, which no amount of scrubbing could dislodge 
for it stuck closer than a postage stamp. 

A SUGARED TONGUE. 

Col. Geo. A. Gordon was a pleasant, persuasive 
speaker and in his address to the company urging its 
division so as to complete the quota necessary for a regi- 
mental organization he held out to us a tempting array 
of promises as to our treatment if his wishes were com- 
plied with. An Irish member of his old company heanl 
the speech and in commenting on it said. 'Taith, the 
sugar on his tongue is an inch thick." 

The Oglethorpes, though serving as infantry, had re- 
tained their artillery organization and Gordon in his plea 
for a division, said that the incorporation of such an or- 
ganization into an infantry regiment would be an 



86 



UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 



anomaly— that we would be "nyther fish, flesh nor fowl," 
giving the English pronunciation to the word ''neither." 
Some time afterward the Colonel was making his Sun- 
day morning inspection of quarters and had reached 
Elmore Dunbar's tent. As some of Dunbar's mess were 
sick, he had hoisted a yellow handkerchief over the tent 
and with a piece of charcoal had placed on its front the 
sign, ''Wayside Home." Gordon saluted as he came up, 
and then noticing the sign said, "Sergeant, what is your 
bill of fare today," "Nyther fish, flesh nor fowl," said 
Dunbar, and the Colonel smiled and went his way. 

FIRE AND FALL BACK 

The monotony of garrison duty a-nd our comparative 
exemption from danger during our stay at Thunderbolt, 
developed the spirit of mischief in the boys to an inor- 
dinate degree and no opf)ortunity for its exercise wao al- 
lowed to go unimproved. Bob Lassiter, while off duty 
one day, was taking a nap on a "bunk" in his cabin. His 
unhosed feet protruded from the widow, probably with 
a view to fumigation by the salt sea breeze. Jim Mc- 
Laughlin passed by and taking in the situation called 
Jim Thomas. Twisting and greasing a strip of paper they 
placed it gently between Bob's unsuspecting toes, fired 
the ends and then made themselves scarce in that local- 
ity. As the lambent flame "lipped the Southern strand" 
of Bob's pedal extremities, he, doubless, felt in the lan- 
guage of Henry Timrod, "Strange tropic warmth and 



TKANSFERRED TO THE COAST. 87 

hints of summer ;>cas" and probably dreamed of "A Hot 
Time m the Old Town" that day. But if so his drean.s 
were short-hvt.d Willi a yell of pain he fell back on the 
fl^.Mir of bis cabm. .in.l then, 

He ha;lv hurried to and fro, 

To find the author of his woe; 

The search was vain for chance was slim 

To fasten guilt on either Jim. 

SKIRMISHING FOR PIE 

Dessert was not a standing item on our army bill of 
fare and when, by chance or o^therwise, our menu cul- 
minated in such a course, m.oderation in our indulgence 
was one of the lost arts. One dav in '63, AV. J. Steed and 
I. with several other comrades chanced to be in Savan- 
nah at the dinner liour. Our rations for a long time had 
known no change from the daily round of corn bread 
and fat bacon, and we decided to vary this monotony by 
a m-eal at the Screven House. The first course was dis- 
posed of and dessert was laid before us. Steed finished 
his but his appetite for pie was still unsatisfied. Calling a 
waiter he said, "Bring me some more pie." "Wc furnish 
only one piece," said the waiter. 

The lirst course plates had not been removed from the 
table, but simply shoved aside. The waiter passed on and 
Steed pushed the dessert plate from him and gently 
drawing the other back in his front, awaited results. An- 
other waiter passed and thinking Steed had not been 



88 UNDER THE STARS AXD BARS. 

served, brought him another piece of pie This being 
disposed of the program was again repeated and still 
another waiter supplied dessert. The shifting process 
was continued until his commissary department could 
hold no more and he was forced to retire upon fhe laurels 
he had won in the field of gastronomic diplomacy. 

STEED AND THE SUGAR 

My friend's penchant for pie may have had its Iniluence 
in the origin of a problem in the company, which like 
the squaring of the circle has never received a satisfac- 
tory solution. He held during his term of service the 
office of commissary sergeant for the companv, a posi- 
tion in which it was difficult at any time and impossible 
when rations were scarce, to give entire satisfaction. 
These difficulties in his case were, perhaps, enhanced by 
the peculiarities of his poetic temperament, which caus- 
ed him to live among the stars and gave him a distaste 
for the bread and nieat side of life, except possibly as to 
pie. Try as faithfully as he would to show strict impar- 
tiality in the distdbution, there was sometimes a dim 
suspicion that the bone in the beef fell oftener to other 
messes than his own and that the scanty rations of sugar 
issued weekly were heaped a little higher when his mess 
had in contemplation a pie or pudding on the following 
day. These suspicions finally culminated in an inquire-, 
which became a proverb of daily use; an inquiry, which 
formed the concluding argument in every camp dis- 



TKANSFERliED TO THE COAST. 89 

cnssion, whether on a disputed point in miHtary tactics or 
on the reconcihation of g-eologicajl revelation with the 
Mosaic cosmogony; an inquiry with which Jim- Mc- 
LaughHn and Jim Fleming still salute their former com- 
missary: ''What has that to do with Steed and the 
sugar?" 

Of course there w^as never any foundaion for such a 
feeling and probably never any real suspicion of favor- 
itism in the matter. These things formed the minor key 
of our soldier life and served as they were intended^ to 
enliven its sometimes dull monotony. My friend, and I 
am glad to have been honored so long by his friendship, 
will pardon, I know, in the gentleness of his heart a 
revival of these memories. Aside from the faithful dis- 
charge of the difiiicult duties of his position, it gives me 
pleasure to add my willing testimony to the silent wit- 
ness of his armless sleeve, that on the firing line and in 
all the sphere of duty, to which the service called him, 
he was every inch a soldier. 

"BUTTER ON MY GREENS." 
For the convenience and comfort of the soldiers going 
to and returning from their commands, "Wayside 
Homes" were established at different points in the Con- 
federacy where free lunches were served by the fair and 
willing hands of patriotic young ladies living in the vicin- 
itv. A uniform of. grey was the only passport needed. 
One of these "Homes" was located at Millen, Ga. De- 
tained there on one occasion, en route to my command 



90 UNDER THE 8TAKS AND BARS. 

at Thunderbolt I was glad to accept their hospitality. 
Seated at the table enjoying the spread they had pre- 
pared one of these fair waiting maids approached me 
and asked if I would take some butter on my ''greens." 
My gastronomic record as a soldier had been like Jos- 
eph's coat, "of many colors." I had eaten almost every- 
thing from "cush" and ''slapjacks" to raw corn and 
uncooked bacon. I had made up dough on the top of a 
stump for a tray and cooked it on a piece of split hickory 
for an oven. I had eaten salt meait to which the govern- 
ment had good title, and fresh meat to which neither I 
nor the government had any title, good or bad. But but- 
ter on "greens" was a combination new to my exper- 
ience and as my digestive outfit had, during my school 
days, been troubled with a dyspeptic trend, I felt com- 
pelled to decline such an addition to a dish that had been 
boiled with fat bacon. 

Notwithstanding the absence of my friend Steed the 
supply of pie that day was short, and with a degree of 
self-denial, for which I can not now account, I asked for 
none A soldier next me at the table, however, iiled his 
application and when our winsome waitress returned, 
she handed the desert to me and left my neighbor pieless. 
I could not recall her fair young face as one I had ever 
ever seen before, and I had always been noted for my 
lack of personal comeliness. I was at a loss therefore to 
understand why the unsolicited discrimination in my fa- 
vor had been made. A few minutes later the problem 



TRANSFERRED TO THE COAST. '.)! 

was solved. Standing on the porch after the meal had 
ended, this self-same maiden approached me a little 
timidly and asked, "When did you hear from your broth- 
er Sammie?" She and my younger brother, it seemed, 
had been schoolmates, and, as I learned afterwards, 
"sweethearts" as well, and the pie business was no long- 
er a mystery. 

If she still lives as maid or matron and this sketch 
should m'cet her eye, it gives me pleasure to assure her 
that the fragrance of her kindly deed though based upon 
no merit of my own, still lingers lovingly in my memory, 
like the echo of "faint, fairy footfalls dow^n blossoming 
Avays." 

OUR CAMP POET. 

"Dropping into poetry" has not been a peculiarity 
confined to that singular creation of Dickens' fancy. 
"SilagWef g." While not a contagious disease, it is said 
that a majority of men suffer from it at some period in 
life. Like measles and whooping cough it usually comes 
early, is rarely faital and complete recovery, as a rule, 
furnishes exemption from further attacks, without vacci- 
nation. Under these conditions it is but natural that the 
Oglethorpes should have had a poet in their ranks. In 
fact we had two, James E. Wilson and W. J. Steed, 
who has already figured somewhat in these memories, 
and w'ho w^as called Phunie, for short. The latter was, 
however, only an ex-poet, not ex-ofihcio, nor ex-cathe- 



i)2 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

dra, but ex-post facto. His attack had been lig-ht, very 
light, a sort of poetical varioloid. He had recovered and 
so far as the record shows, there had been no relapse. 
On the first appearance of the symptoms he had mount- 
ed his "Pegasus." which consisted of a stack of barrels 
in rear of his father's barn, and after an hour's mental 
labor, lie rose and reported progress, but did not ask 
leave to sit again. The results are summed up in the fol- 
lowing poetic gem: 

''Here sits Phunie on a barrel, 
With his feet on another barrel." 

He has always claimed that while the superficial read- 
er might find in these lines an apparent lack of artistic 
finish, with some possible defects as to metre and an un- 
fortunate blending of anapestic and iambic verse, the 
rhyme was absolutely perfect. I have been unable to dis- 
cover in them, the rhythmic and liquid cadence that 
marks Buchannan Reade's "Drifting," or the perfection 
in measure attributed by Poe to Byron's ''Ode" to his 
sister, yet my tender regard for my old comrade disin- 
clines me to take issue with him as to the merits of this, 
the sole offspring of his poetic genius. My inability to 
find it in any collection of poetical quotations has induc- 
ed mte to insert it here with the hope of rescuing it from 
a fate of possibly undeserved oblivion. 

Jim Wilson's case was different His was a chronic 
attack. "He lisped in numbers for the numbers came." 



TRANSFERRED TO TflK COAST. 9^ 

As a poet he was not only a daisy, but, as Tom Pilcher 
would say, he was a regular g-eranium. I regret that my 
memory has retained, with a single exception, only frag- 
ments of his many wooings of the muse. 

A young lady friend, Miss Eve, of Nashville, asked 
from Jim a christening contribution to an album- she had 
just purchased. He was equal to the occasion. The man 
and the hour had met. He was in it from start to finish. 
He filled every page in the book with original verse. I 
recall now only the following stanza : 

"Newton, the man of meditation. 
The searcher after hidden cause. 
Who first discovered gravitation 
And ciphered out attractions laws, 
Could not, with all his cogitation. 
Find rules to govern wo'man's jaws." 

But his special forte was parody. A competitive exam- 
ination was ordered at Thunderbolt in '63 to fill the posi- 
tion of second sergeant in the company. After studying 
Hardee's Tactics for a week Jim relieved his feelings in 
the following impromptu effort: 

Tell me not the mournful numbers 
From a "shoulder" to a ''prime," 
For I murmur in my slumbers 
Make two "motions in one time." 

The Oglethorpes, though sen-ing a? infantry had 
clung tenaciously to their artillery organization and to 



"94 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

the red stripes and chevrons which marked the heavier 
srm of the service. On our assignment to Gordon's reg- 
iment, the Colonel had made a very stroing appeal to us 
to divide the company and to discard our artillery trim- 
mings. At the next Sunday morning inspection Jim's 
tent bore a placard with this inscription, intended for the 
Colonel's eye: 

**You may cheat or bamboozle us as much as you wiP, 
But the sign of artillery will hang round us still." 

Probably his masterpiece was a parody on "Mary- 
land," written at Jacksotibofo, Tenn., on the eve of our 
transfer from the 12th Ga. Battalion. That the reader 
may understand the personal allusion in the verses it is 
necessary to say thait Edgar Derry, Jim Russell, Ed 
Clayton and Alph Rogers had been detailed by Col. 
Capers to fill certain staf¥ positions with the battalion; 
that Miles Turpin was company drumm<er and Stowe — 
whose camp sobriquet was "Calline," was fifer; that in 
the skirmish at Huntsville, Tenn , W. W. Bussey, who 
wa-s known in camp as ''Busky," had been shot in the 
temple; that before the final charge on the fort, Col. 
Capers in crossing a ditch had mired in its bottom and 
had found some difficulty in extricating himself; that 
the war horse of the male persuasion ridden by Col. 
Gracie had been killed in the skirmish and that Ran- 
dolph was Secretary of War. When the transfer had 
been effected it was uncertain whether the detailed men 



TRANSFERKED TO THE COAST. 95 

would retain their position or would return to the com- 
pany, and the following verses were written by Jim as an 
appeal to them to go with us : 

Come 'tis the red dawn of the day, 

Here's your mule, 

Come, details, join our proud array. 

Here's your mule, 

With Clayton panting for the fray. 

With Rogers urging on thatt bay, 

With Derry bold and Russell gay, 

Here's your mule, Oh! Here's your mule. 

Come for your limbs are stout and strong, 

Here's your mule. 

Come for your loafing does you wrong, 

Here's your mule, 

Com«e with your muskets light and long, 

Rejoin the crowd where you belong, 

And help us sing this merry song. 

Here's )-our mule. Oh! Here's your mule. 

Dear fellows break your office chains. 

Here's 3^our mule, 

The "Web-feet" should not call in vain, 

Here's your mule, 

But if it goes against the grain, 

"'Sick furlough" is the proud refrain. 

By which you may get off again. 

Here's vour mule. Oh! Here's your mule. 



96 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

We trust you will iiat from us scud, 

Here's your mule. 

And nip your glory in the bud, 

Here's your mule. 

Remember "Busky" bathed in blood, 

Remember Capers stuck in mud, 

And gallant Grade's dying stud, 

Here's your mule. Oh! Here's your mule. 

Ah, though you may awhile stay mum, 

Here's your mule. 

To "Calline's" life and Turpin's drum. 

Here's your mule, 

When orders come from Randolph grum. 

You will not then be deaf nor dumb, 

Ah, then we know you'll come, you'll come, 

Here's your mule. Oh! Here's your mule. 

And now in conclusion, I am unwilling that my friend,. 
Jim Wilson should be judged solely by these rhymes. If 
any allusion in them sounds harshly to ears polite, it 
must be remembered that they were intended, only for 
soldiers eyes and ears. The son of a Presbyterian mis- 
sionary to India, he was an educated Christian gentle- 
man, one of the brightest and wittiest men I have ever 
known, as brave as Julius Caesar and as true to the f.ag 
for which he fought as any m^an who wore the grey. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 

Our service on the coast ended April 28, 1864. On 
April 23 orders were received transferring our regiment 
to Gen. A. R. Wright's Brigade, Army^f Northern Vir- 
ginia. Gen. H. W. Mercer in command, had been order- 
ed to report for duty to Gen. Johnston at Dalton, Ga 
As Gordon and Mercer were both Savannah men and 
their war service to that date had thrown them together, 
they succeeded in inducing the War Department to 
change our orders and assign us to Johnston's Army. 
April 28 we left Savannah, reaching Dalton at 3 a. m. 
April 30, and on May 4 were attached to Gen. V/. H. 
T. W^alker's division, three miles east of Dalton. On May 
7 Sherman opened his Atlanta campaign and for one 
hundred days the rattle of musketry, the roar of 
cannon, the shrieking of shells and the zip of minies,. 
grew very familiar to us, if not very amusing. Our first 
sight of the enemy was at Rocky Face Ridge, May 9. 
Our pickets were driven in c.nd cur trenches shelled, caus- 
ing some casualties in the regiment, but none in the 
Oglethorpes. Lieut. Reddick of Co. B, while reading a 
newspaper in rear of the trenches was killed by a Feder- 
al sharpshooter. No assault was made on our position. 



98 UNDER THE STARS AND BAUS. 

but at three other points in Johnston's Hne efforts were 
made to carry the trenches, though the attacks were all 
repulsed. On the same day Sherman, probably anticipat- 
ing such a result, began his flanking plan of campaign 
by sending McPherson through Snake Creek Gap to 
threaten Johnston's line of communications at Resaca. 
The Federal superiority in numbers at a ratio of nearly 
-two to one, enabled Sherman to cover Johnston's entire 
front and gave #iim besides a large force with which to 
conduct his flanking opertions, a policy he pursued per- 
sistently and successfully to the end of the campaign. As 
it is not my purpose to give the general features of this 
campaign, but simply to record the share borne in it by 
the 63rd Ga. regiment, I can, perhaps best subserve that 
purpose by furnishing the following condensed extracts 
from my ''War Diary" for that period, elaboraiting after- 
ward any special features or incidents that may seem to 
merit more extended notice. 

Mav 10. Left trenches i a. m., marched to a point ^ 
miles from Resaca. (11). Marched to Re'saca and re- 
turned. (12). Marched to a positio'U one mile above Cal- 
houn. (13). Quiet. Being unwell, on invitation of Lieut. 
Daniel spent the night with Rev. L S. Hopkins and him- 
self at the house of his mother in Calhoun. 

14. Battle of Resaca. Rejoined command on its way 
to the front. Walker's division held in reserve until 12 m'. 
Then O'-dered up to reinforce Stewart's division. Ex- 
posed to heavy artilliery fire while crossing pontoon 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 99 

bridg-e at Resaca. Heavy fighting in our fron)t. Enemy 
repulsed. lo p. m , marched l^ack through Calhoun to 
Tanner's Ferry. 

15. In line of battle. Jackson's brigade charged enemy's 
line at ihe Ferry but were repulsed, to p. m., returned to 
Calhoun. 

16. Marched to Tanner's Ferry. Heavy skirmishing 
between Steven's brigade and the enemy. Junius T. 
Steed of the Oglethorpes, wounded. Slept on our arms. 

17. At I a. m. aroused and ordered to fall back to 
Adiirsville. Remained in line of battle imtil i_> p. m. 
18. Fell back four miles below Kingston. 

19. Advanced and took position 2 miles from Kings- 
ion. Under fire from sharpshooters and skirmishers H. 
L Hill killed and T. F. Burbanks wounded. 12 or 15 
casualties in regiment. Retired to Cass station and form- 
ed line of battle. Johnston's battle order issued. 

20. At 1 a. m. crossed the Etowah and fell back to 
within two miles of Altoona. 

21-22. Quiet. (23). Marched five miles in the direc- 
tion of Dallas. 

24. Aroused at daylight and marched 15 miles, camp- 
ing near Powder Springs. 

25. At I a. m. marched four miles back. At 2 p. m. 
moved forward a mile and formed line of battle. After 
night moved three miles and bivouacked. 

26. At 3 a. m. went formard and took position in rear 
of Stewart's division. Skirmishing in front all day. 

LofC. 



100 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS 

27. Moved to the left near Dallas and then a mile or 
t^A^ to the right. H. B. Jackson wounded. Oglethorpes 
and Co. I thrown out as skirmishishers. At 11 p. m. 
brigade ordered away, leaving us on skirmish line with- 
out support. 

28. Skirmishing all day. Capt. Picquet wounded in leg, 
A. W. McCurdy in head. 

29. At 4 p. m. relieved from duty on skirmish line and 
rejoined regiment on Ellsbury Ridge. 

30- June I. Quiet. (2). Heavy rain. Division moved 
four miles to the right in rear of Stevenson, slippery 
march. 

3. Quiet day. At 11 p. m. moved off to the right. 
Jackson's brigade and a portion of ours detached in the 
darkness, lost their way and forced to lie over till morn- 
ing. 

4. Rejoined division and built breastworks. Ogle- 
thorps and Co. G on picket. Skirmishing with the ene- 
my. At 12 p. m. reheved by Wheeler's cavalry and told 
to 'git," as our army had fallen back. Overtook regiment 
after five mile tramp over muddiest road I ever saw. 
Moved 3 miles further and took position in rear of Gist's 
brigade. {6-y). Quiet. 

8. Brigade on picket. 63d Ga. in reserve. 
9-1 1. Quiet, and rain, rain, rain. 

12. On picket. Wet time. 

13. Brigade on picket. Skirmishing between the lines. 

14. Quiet. (15). Brigade on picket. Shelled by Federal 



THE DALTON ^VND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. lOl 

batteries. Lowry's pickets retired leaving our flank ex- 
posed. Took position on left of Cleburne's division. At 
II p. m. moved to the rear of Lowry's brigade. 

j6. Shelled by the enemy. Some casualties in regiment 

17. Moved several times, built breastworks. 

18. Six companies from regiment sent out to reinforre 
skirmishers. Heavy fighting between the lines all day. 
Carroll, Casey, Knox, Miller and Smith wounded. 25 
casualties in other companies of the regiment. Relieved 
at 8 p. m. Moved 2 1-2 miles towards Marietta. 

19. Moved up to the summit of a ridge as a picket re- 
.-erve. At night moved down in rear of breastworks and 
then half mile to the right and had orders to fortify but 
slept. 

20. Dug trenches on Kennesaw line of defence. Heavy 
skirmishing and artillery firing on our right. 

21. Remained in the tienches. Skirmishing in our 
front. 

22. Artillery duel between the enemy and our batter- 
ries on Kennesaw. Six companies from our regiment 
sent out on picket line. 

23. Skirmishing on picket line all day. No casualties 
in Oglethorpes. Relieved at 8 p. m. 

24-25. Artillery firing and skirmishing. 

26. W. A. Dabney wounded last night in arm while 
asleep. Seven companies and a detail of 47 men from the 
Oglethorpes sent out from the legiment on picket line. 

2y. Battle of Kennesaw began at 8 a. m. and ended at 



J02 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

II :30. Enemy repulsed all along the line, with heavy loss. 
Oglethorpes lost twenty-three in killed, wounded and 
captured. Loss in regiment 88. 

28-July I. Quiet. (2) At 10 p. m. right wing of the army 
fell back to a position 5 miles below Marietta. 

3. Federal army lined up in our front. 

4. Some indication of a general engagement. Yankees 
seem disposed to celebrate the day with their artillery. 
Co. A with five other companies from the regiment on 
picket. Heard some excellent music by the Federal 
bands. 

5. Army retired to a position near the Chattahoochee. 

6. Entrenched and moved to the left. 

7. Quiet. (8). Co. A with five others on picket. 

9. Retired a,nd crossed river to rejoin brigade. 

10. Johnston's entire army crossed the Chattahoochee 
last night. 

11. Having been quite unwell for several days, through 
advice of Lieut. Daniel and Dr. Cumming I went to Di- 
vision Hospital. On the 15th was sent by Medical Board 
to Atlanta. On the 17th went to hospital at 0:?cford, Ga. 
I did not rejoin my command again until Aug. i8th. 
During my absence Gen. Johnston had been superseded 
by Gen. Hood as commander of the Army of Tennessee, 
the battles of Peach Tree Creek and Atlanta had been 
fought. Gen. W. H. T. Walker, our division commander 
had been killed and our brigade had been transferred to 
Pat Cleburne's division. In the battle of Peach Tree 



THE DA].TOX AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 103 

Creek July 20th, onr regiment was only partially en- 
gaged and suffered but little loss. Eugene Verdery and 
Henry Booth of the Ogletliorpes were wounded. The for- 
mer had volunteered for service on the skirmish line that 
day and while driving in the enemy's picket line received 
a wound in the "head, which caused him to spin around 
like a top. 

In the battle of Atlanta, July 2.2, the regiment was in 
the thick of the fight and lost more heavily. Of the Ogle- 
thorpes. S. M. Guy was killed. Ob. Rooks was mortally 
wounded, M. H. Crowder lost a leg, R. W. Lassiter an 
arm, Jim McLaughlin the bridge of his nose, while 
George Leonhardt, John Bynum, Clay Foster, Hugh 
Ogilby, John Quinn and J. O. Wiley were otherwise 
wounded. After my return to the company, near East 
Point, on the i8th the regiment was sent to the picket 
line on the 19th and when relieved on the morning of 
the 20th, was placed on the reser\^e line, where we re- 
mained until the 30th. At 2 a. m. that day we were 
aroused and ordered to "fall in," but did not move until 
daylight, when we shifted position 3 or 4 miles to the 
left. At II p. m'. we were again on the march and after 
a fatiguing night tramp reached Jonesboro about dav- 
I'ght on the 3Tsr. 

BATTLE OF JONESBORO. 

After investing and bombarding Atlanta for a month, 
Sherman ha-l beerun his flankncr tactics aeain bv sending 



104 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

five of his corps to seize the M. & W. Road at Jonesboro, 
and Hardee, v.ith his own lvA Lee's corps, had been sent 
down to checkma-te the movement After resting a few 
hours we v^ere formed in Hne of battle across an o!d 
field with only Lowry's brigade on our left. For the only 
time in my experience as a soldier, the plan of battle was 
read to our command. Lee's corps and two divisions of 
Hardee's were to alrtack the enemy in front while Cle- 
burne's division, to which we belonged, were to ad- 
vance, then wheel to the right and attack in flank. Lying 
for several hours under a hot August sun awaiting orders 
to advance, I remember that, being uncertain as to my 
fate in the coming fight, and unwilling to allow the let- 
ters in my possession to fall into the enemy's hands, I 
tore them up, leaving only one for the identification of 
my body in case of my death. At 2 p. m. we were ordered 
forward. Crossing the open field and advancing through 
a piece of w^oodland, a battery of artillery opened on us 
but their shot flew high. Sol Foreman of the Ogletliorpes, 
was struck by a piece of shell, but there was no other 
casualty in the company. After advancing nearly a mile 
we struck a boggy swamip a-nd on its farthest edge Flint 
river. Will Daniel plunged in aud turning to me said, 
'*Come on sergeant." Lie had gone but a little way when 
the water reached his arm pits and sword in hand he 
swam across. Knowing that my cartridges would be use- 
less if I followed suit, I ran up the stream and found dry 
passage on a log that lay across it. Reaching the crest of 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 105 

the hill beyond, we halted to reform the line. The horse 
ridden by Col. Olmstead, our Wgade commander, had 
mired in the swamp, our regiment was without a field 
officer and Will Daniel offered to take command of the 
brigade in the final charge, which we all felt to be ahead 
of us. The hill on which we stood had been occupied by 
Federal cavalry and artillery, who had retired as we ap- 
'.^roached. the roar of battle giving evidence of a fierce 
engagement on our right, came to us over the hills and 
valleys; Capt. Dickson of Cleburne's stafif, with his 
^iorse all afoam, his coat and vest discarded and the per- 
spiration trickling from liis face, was riding from point 
to point in the line giving his final orders and the sultry 
simim'cr air smelled viciously' of powder and lead. At this 
juncture a courier from Cleburne dashed up with orders 
for us to retire. We had gone some distance beyond the 
point intended and had become entirely detached from 
the line on our right. The attack in the enemy's front 
had failed to dislodge them and our two brigades could 
hardly have accomplished much against five corps of the 
enemy. By dusk we had resumed our original position 
and our regiment was placed on the picket line. On 
Sept. I. Lee's corps returned to Atlanta and Hardee was 
i'eft with his two divisions to face an enemy whose 
strengh was five times his own. Relieved from- picket by 
a detail of Cheatham's division, we were placed in the 
trenches vacated by Lee's corps. At 3 p. 'm. the enem.y 
massed heavily in front of Lewis' Ky., and Govans' Ark. 



106 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

brjg-ades and assaulted in three lines of battle, but were 
repulsed. They then formed in column of companies, 
makino- ten lines of battle, and renewed the attack. Our 
breastworks at this point were inferior and were manned 
only by a line in single rank . 

With such odds the issue could not long re- 
main in doubt. Govans' line was broken and a 
part of his brigade was captured. No assault wras made 
on the line held by us, though we were subjected to a 
heavy fire from their skirmish line. At lo p. m., Hardee 
evacuated his position and at daylight on the 2nd, occu- 
pied another, near Lovcjoy Station. Sherman secured a 
foothold on the M. & W. Road and Hood, compelled to 
give up Atlanta, formed a junction with Hardee on the 
3rd. 

The enem}' had again taken position in our front an<1 
skirmishing was kept up until the 8th, when they w^ere 
recalled by Sherman and the Dalton and Atlanta cam- 
paign w-as ended. 

FURTHER MEMORIES OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
The following incidents oscillating as they do "from 
grave to gay," and marked perhaps as much by comedy 
as by tragedy, wall probably be of more interest to the 
reader of these records than the details just ended: 

'TWO AND A DOG." 

At the da-te of our transfer from the coast to Johnston's 
armv, our uniforms were in fairlv good condition and 



THE DALTOX AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 107 

Lore in almost evcrv case the insignia of rank held by 
the wearer. The writer's jacket had on its sleeves the reg- 
ulation chevrons of an c-rderly sergeant, three bars or 
.^tripcs with lozenge or diamond above them. The troop<^ 
who had followed the fortunes of the Western army from 
Shiloh to Chickamauga were not so well clad and had, 
lo a large extent discarded their official insignia. For 
this reason they were disposed to guy us as bandbox 
soldiers. Passing some of these veterans one day on the 
march one of them noticed my chevrons and sang out to 
his comrades: "Look there, boys. I've often hearn of 
''two and a dog" but I'll be blamed if there ain't "three 
and a dog." I reckon that's the way they play kyards on 
the coast." The laugh that followed convinced me that my 
lack of familiadty with the mysteries of the card ta^>;e 
Avas not shared bv^ tho-se who lieard the jest. 

STRIPES ON THE WRONG SIDE. 

While we suftered from deficiencies on other lines v.i 
the summer of '64, there was certainly no lack of rain\ 
weather during that campaign. The roads over which we 
tramped were composed largely of a red. adhesive clay. 
The writer's physical conformation gave him some righ' 
to be classed with the knock-kneed species of the genus 
homo, and in marching over the wet clay hills, the red 
pigment began at his ankles and by successive contact, 
traveled g^radually up the inside seams of his grey trous- 
ers until those seams and an inch-wide space on either 



108 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

side were covered for almost their entire length. Passing 
one day a division resting by the roadside, one of them 
noticetl the pecnhar condition of my bifut'cated garment, 
and sang out to me: "Hello, my friend; you've got the 
stripe on the wrong side of your pants." I could not deny 
the soft im'peachment and enjoyed the laugh raised at 
my expense as much as did my comrades. 

A CLOSE SHAVE. 

The battle of Resaca began May 14, '64, Walker's 
division, to \vhich we belo'nged, wa's held in reserve dur- 
ing the morning and at 12 m., as the fighting grew 
fiercer, we were oirdered up to reinforce Stewart's divis- 
ion in our front. A pontoon bridge had been laid across 
the Oostenaula river and a courier stationed on its bank 
to hurry the men across, as the railroad embankment on 
the other side would protect them from the fire of a Fed- 
eral battery, which had secured the exact range of the 
road over which we were passing. As we approached the 
bridge Capt. Martin, commanding the company next in 
Qur front, halted the column a moment to hear what the 
courier was saying. As the march was resumed, a solid 
shot from the battery struck directly in a file of fours in 
Martin's company killing two and wounding a third, not 
mare than ten feet from where I stood. The time occu- 
pied in the halt would have about sufficed to have cov- 
ered the intervening distance, and certainly saved the 
lives of som.e of the Oglethorpes and possibly my own. 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 109 

Crossing the river, Gen. W. H. T. Walker passed us 
going to the front and as he rode by, another shot from 
the battery struck immediately behind him, barely miss- 
ing his horse. Glancing around ait the dust it had raised 
and turning to us with a smile on his face, he said, "Go 
it boots," and galloped on to the head of the division. 
On this, as well as on every other occasion when under 
fire, he seem-ed not only absolutely indififerent to danger, 
but really to enjoy its presence. Gen Cabell, in recalling 
his association with Gen. Walker in the '6o's, said that 
battle always brought to his eyes an unusual glitter and 
that he thought him the bravest man he had ever known. 
A hero in three wars, severely wounded at Okeecho- 
bee, Fla., and at Molino Del Rey and Chapultpec, Mex., 
he fell at last gallantly leading his division at the battle of 
Atlanta, July 22, '64, and I am sure no battle soil on 
God's green earth in all the ages was ever stained by 
braver or by nobler blood than William Henry Walker's. 

A TWILIGHT PRAYER MEETING. 

On May 19, '64, Sherman and Johnston were fronting 
each other near Kingston, Ga. In the skirmishing that 
day the Oglethorpes had suffered some casualties, among 
them' one t'hait saddened all the company. Hugh Legare 
Hill, son of Hon. Joshua Hill, a beardless boy, had been 
shot through the head and instantly killed He had join- 
ed us some months before at Thunderbolt and becom- 
ing restive under the inaction of coast service, had ap- 



110 UNDER THE STAKS AND RAT^S. 

plied for a transfer to Johnston's army. Chafing- under 
the delay brong'ht on by military red tape in such mat- 
ters, and anxious to secure a place on the firing line he 
had urged the offtcers to press the matter as he wanted 
to reach his new command in time for the opening of the 
spring campaign. Before the papers were returned our 
regiment was ordered to Dalton and the transfer was 
abandoned. 

Poor Legare! The spring campaign had not yet drifted 
into summer before his bright young life, that knew no 
•other .season, but its spring, had found its sad and sud- 
den ending on the firing line, a place for which he long- 
ed so ardently and met so bravely. 

In. the evening of that day we occupied a line near 
Cass Station, a line chosen by Johnston for a general 
and decisive engagement with Sherman's atmy. The Fa- 
bian policy, that had marked the campaign from its 
opening, was to be ended. The gage of battle was thrown 
down and Atlanta's fate was to be settled before another 
sunset. Every arramgemenit for the coming conflict was 
made and the men ready and anxious for the fray were 
lesting on their arms. At the twilight hour two mem 
hers of the Oglethorpes left their places in the ranks 
and retired to a quiet spot in the forest not far away to 
talk with God. No church spire raised its lofty summit 
heavenward. Under the open sky in one of "God's first 
temples," as dusk was deepening into night, they kneeled 
together and each in turn, in tones of earnest supplica- 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. Ill 

tion, asked for God's protecting care upon themselves 
and on their cofnirades in the coming battle and for His 
blessing on the ilag for which they fought and prayed. 
And when their prayers were ended, they pledged each 
other that if it was the fate of either one to fall, the other 
would act a brother's part and give such aid and comfort 
as he could. 

Returning to their places in the line, they wrapped 
I heir worn, grey blankets around them and lay down un- 
der the starlight to pass in calm and quiet sleep, the 
night before the battle. I have attended many larger 
prayer meetings since that day; I have heard many peti- 
tions to a Throne of Grace, clothed in more cultured 
phrase, and yet but few that seemed more earnest or filled 
with simpler trust in God. 

Under the urgent protest of Hood and Polk, Joe 
Johnston's plans were changed and the promised battle 
beside the Etowah was never fought. I know not what 
the issue would have been, personal or national. I know 
that if the hundred and fifty thousand men marshalled 
upon that field on that May day had met in deadly strife, 
the shadows would have fallen on m.any a Northern and 
many a Southern home. And yet somehow I can but feel 
that if that evening's bloody promise had been fulfilled 
and in the gathering twilight at its close our company 
roll was called to mark the living and the dead, my friend 
and comrade, Steed, and I, whose humble prayers 
had broken the silence of the evening air to reach no 



112 U^sDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

other ears but ours and God's, would in in His kindly 
])rovidence have answered, "Here." 

TOM -HOWARD'S SQUIRREL BEAD. 

On May 28, '64, we were on skirmish line near Dallas. 
Ga. The remainder of the brigade had left the trenches 
in our rear to reinforce some other point in the line anci 
the pickets were holding the fort alone. A Federal sharp- 
shooter had secured a concealed position at short range 
and was picking off the men in a way highly satisfactory 
ro himself, perhaps, but decidedly unpleasant to us. We 
Jiad been on duty all the night before and worn out from 
loss of sleep, I sat down with my back to a tree as a pro- 
tection from careless bullets and fell asleep Will Daniel, 
in a similar position and for like reasons, was dozing at 
the next tree twenty feet away. A courier came down 
the line and waking me asked for the officer in con;- 
majnd. I pointed to Will and as the courier laid his hanil 
on Will's shoulder to wake him*, a ball crashed through 
his knee, causing him to scream with pain. A little while 
before Louis Picquet had received the wound that cost 
him his leg, and a little later McCurdy of our company, 
fell with a ball through his head. 

Tom Howard had been watching the progress of 
events and they seemed to him entirely too one-sided. 
Gripping his rifle more tightly aind with the peculiar 
flash that came to his eyes when excited, he said, ''Boys 
'A I can get a squirrel bead on that fellow I can stop his 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 115 

racket." Slipping from tree to tree until he located tl'C 
picket by the smoke of his gun, he drew his squirrel bead 
and nred. This time the yell of pain came from the other 
side, and Tom, with his eyes dancing and his face all 
aglow, turned to us and said, "Boys, I got him. I heard 
him holler." Tomb's bead had stopped the racket. 

-WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER.'^ 

Tom was one of the ''characters" in the company. 
Brave and generous, full of life and humor and always 
ready for duty, he would sometimes grow a little home- 
sick. One day, Ab Mitchell, sitting on the edge of the 
trenches, began to sing, ''When this cruel war is over." 
So far as I know, Ab. had never taken first prize at a 
singing school, but as Tom listened, the plaintive melo- 
dy of the air and the undertone of sadness in the verses 
carried him back to his old hbme in Oglethorpe. Every 
feature of the old plantation life rose vividly before him. 
He heard the "watch dog's honest bark bay deep-mouth- 
ed welcome" as he drew near home. He slaked his thirst 
from the "old oaken bucket that hung in the well." He 
heard the lowing cows and saw the playful gambol of his 
blooded stock cantering across the barn yard. He saw 
the blooming cotton fields and heard the rustling of the 
waving corn. But last and best of all, he felt the pressure 
of tiny arms about his neck, the touch of loving lips upon 
his own and then his dream was over. With tears in th. 
heart if not in liis eye, he thought of the life that lay be- 



114 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

before him; of the weary months or years that woukl 
come and g'o before these old familiar scenes would glad- 
den his eyes again, and he could stand it no longer. Ris- 
ing suddenly he seized his old rifle and turning to the 
singer, he said, "Ab Mitchell, if you sing another line of 
that song, I'll blow your blamed head off." x\nd the con- 
cert ended without an encore. 

[ ' "JIM, TOUCH OFF NO. i." 

"During this campaign, Major Bledsoe of Missouri, 
comimanded a battalion of artillery in Cleburne's divis- 
ion. A veteran of two wars, combining in his person- 
ality both the Southern and Western types, tall and 
gaunt, with no tface of Beau Brummellism in his phy- 
sical or mental make-up, he was as stubborn a fighter 
as the struggle produced on either side, and yet away 
fromi the battlefield he was as gentle and as genial as a 
woman. So accurate were his gunners and so efifective 
their fire, that it was said that no Federal battery had 
■ever planted itself in range of his guns, when they were 
once unlimbered. 

As he sat by his battery one day in May, '64, reading 
a newspaper, a stranger approached him and said, ''Ma- 
jor, where are the Yankees?" Raising his eyes from the 
paper a moment he turned to one of his gunners and 
said: "Ji^^' touch of¥ No. i," and resumed his rcadin/j:. 
**Jim" pulled the lanyard, there was a puft of smoke, the 
earth trembled from the concussion and the six-pound 



THE D ALTON .VND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 115 

messenger sped on its mission of death. As it reached its 
mark, which had been hidden by the undergrowth in 
front, the *'bhte coats" were seen scattering in every 
direction. The stranger was answered. 

As I ma}^ have no further occasion to refer to Major 
Bledsoe in these records, an incident or two occurring 
some months later may not be amiss in this connection. 
On October 29, '64, near Courtland, Ala., on our trip 
to Nashville, a grey fox crossed our line of march, 
passing between two of the regiments. The Major was 
riding by and spurring his horse to full speed, he gave 
chase, trying at every step to disengage his pistol front 
the holster for a shot at the animal. I think he failed to 
secure the "brush." The Reynard tribe must have been 
numerous in that section, for on reaching our camping 
place that evening, we found Pat Cleburne and his entire 
ftafif chasing anoither fox through an old field. 

After the retreat from Nashville our division was or- 
lered to North Carolina and in the transfer the trip from 
Selma to Montgomery, Ala., was made by steam-er. The 
boat was old and slow, and the voyage monotonous. 
To enliven, it, the boys, for lack of better game, would 
L.'*y their marksmanship on every buzzard that in silent 
dignity sat perched on the tall dead pines that Kned the 
river bank. Major Bledsoe was with us, and constituting 
nimself a "lookout" for the game, he entered into the 
^port with all the zest and ardor of a boy. He was prob- 
ably no blood kin to "Jim Bludsoe" of Prairie Belle 



116 UNDER THE STAKS AND BARS. 

fame, but under similar conditions I believe that Kkr 
'Jim" he would, regardless of his own fate, have 

''Held her nozzle to the bank, 
Till the last galoot Vv-as ashore." 

ANOTHER STAMPEDE. 

Mention has been made of a panic that occurred on a 
night march near Green Brier river, Va., in '6i. A sim- 
ilar stampede occurred on the night of May 25. '64, near 
Powder Springs, Ga. We were in reserve and were shift- 
ing position to the right. The night was dark and none 
of us knew the object of the movement or our destina- 
tion. Tramping along quietl}^ under a moonless sky over 
n country road darkly shaded by a heavy forest growth, 
a sudden rumbling was heard, increasing in volume as 
it approached and then the colum^n in front dimly seen 
in the starlight, swayed to the right and there was a unan- 
imous movem^ent to get out of the way and to get quickly. 
One man, thoroughly demoralized, broke through the 
woods at full speed in the darkness, ran into a tree, that 
stood in his pathway, and dislocated his knee cap. Most 
of the men thought the enemy's cavalry were charging 
doAvn the road upon them and they took to the woods 
and did not stand upon the order of their going. The 
rumbling was caused by the hurried tramp of feet as the 
men left the road. It was simply a causeless stampede 
and no one knew how it began. It was said that a deer 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 117 

ran across the road in front of the column, but I can not 
vouch for the correctness of this explanation. 

I do not know how it may have been with others, but 
to the writer the expectation of meeting- an unseen enemy 
in the dark, with no means of ascertaining his numbers 
or location, was never a pleasant sensation. It would 
have modified the feeling-, perhaps, if I liad borne in 
mind always the advice oi a Confederate general to his 
men to "remember tliat ;the other side is as badly scared 
as you are," 

A SUMMER DAY ON THE FIRING LINE. 

It Avas a day in June, but neither a perfect nor a rare- 
June day. For two weeks and more it had rained almos, 
continuously. Every day o'r two Jabe Poyner, the weath- 
er prophet of the company, had said, ''Well boys, this is 
ihe clearing up shower." And still it rained and rained 
arnd rained until Poyner's reputation on this line had 
p-one where the woodbine twineth. In the early morning 
of ihe 1 8th there was another of Jabe's clearing up 
showers and at its close the boys were lying on the v/et 
ground, a hundred yards in rear of the breastvvorlrs, 
awaiting orders. They had amused themselves for a 
lime by shooting pebbles at each other, when Bill Byrd's 
foot was struck and he said, "Boys, don't shoot so hard — 
that one hurt." Looking down at his foot, he found that 
mother partner had entered the game as it had been hit 
by a minnie ball from the skirmish line. 



118 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

The. firing had begun at daylight and was growing 
heavier. At 8 a. m. six companies of the regiment were 
vjrdered to the front to reinforce our skirmish Hne, which 
^vas being pressed back. "Over the breastworks, Ogle- 
ihorpes," sang out Lieut. Daniel, and we went over 
with a yell. Advancing and deploying under fire, we 
reached a position within 250 yards of the Federal line 
and having no rifle pits, we availed ourselves of such 
protection as the larger forest trees afforded. Selecting a 
post oak, I had been there only a little while when the 
man on my right, belonging to another company, was 
shot down. The woods were very thick in my front and 
not relishing the idea of being killed with such limited 
opportunity of returning the favor, I shifted my position 
to the leeward side of a red oak, twenty or thirty feet to 
the left where the woods were more open and a Federal 
rifle pit in front was only partially hidden from my view. 
The diameter of the tree about covered my own and 
there for twelve hours, in a drizzling rain, I cultivated 
the acquaintance of that oak more earnestly perhaps 
than I had ever fostered a personal friendship. For that 
day at least it was "my own familiar friend in whom I 
trusted," and if on bidding it adieu, I had m^et the owner, 
my prayer to him would have been. 

Woodman spare that tree. 

Mar not its noble shape. 

Today it sheltered me 

From "minnie" and from "grape." 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 119 

All day long- leaden messengers were knocking at the 
door of my improvised breastwork in search of my long 
and lank anatomy. It was barked and scarred and torn 
from the rooit to twenty feet above my head. Twice the 
bark was knocked into my eyes and once a ball striking 
at the foot of the tree filled them with dirt. On one of 
these occasions I must have flinched a little as George 
Harrison, who was cultivating friendly relations with the 
next tree on my right, turned anxiously and asked if I 
was shot. 

The Federal line as a rule stuck rather closely to their 
pits and not feeling authorized to waste my ammunition 
T fired only when there was a blue target in sight. Some 
of the boys, less careful of their cartridges expended So 
or 90 rounds during the day. John Carroll, ten feet to 
my left, kept firing when I could see no game, and I said 
to him, "John, what are you shooting at?" "Well," he 
said, "they are down that way." Before the day was 
ended some of them "down that way" had shot him 
through the thigh, and the poor fellow died of the wound. 

In addition to the incessant infantry fire, which made 
small lead mines of the friendly oaks, the Federal artil- 
lery, not wishing to be lacking in social attentions, com- 
plimented us at short intervals with volleys of grape. 
These came over us like the whir of a covey of over- 
grown partridges, but fortunately flew high, causing 
more nervousness than execution. 

Ninetv thousand rounds of ammunition were fired on 



120 UNDER THE STARS AND BIRS. 

Hardee's line alone that day and our friends on the oither 
side expended probably an equal or larger number. There 
was no intermission for lunch. Our rations were nearly 
half a mile away and the Northern exposure of the route 
towards them, somehow dulled our appetites. There are 
feveral incidents that come back very vividly today from 
that twelve hours' flight in the woods. 

A SQUIRREL HUNT UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 
One of these incidents furnished an exhibition of cool- 
ness under fire and indifference to danger that had no 
parallel in all my term of service. About midday I heard 
several shots fired a short distance in my rear. Fearing 
that some excited soldier might fire wildly and shoot me 
In the back, I turned to investigate, and saw a mem-ber 
of the regiment standing in an exposed position and 
coolly and deliberately firing, not at the enemy, but a": 
n squirrel he had discovered in the branches of the tree 
above our heads. Grape shot were tearing the limbs from 
iheir sockets, minies were making music in the air, or 
striking the oaks with a dull, dull thud, but that soldier, 
was oblivious to everything save a determination to have 
fried squirrel for supper. If I knew his name i cannot 
now recall it, nor do I remember whether the squirrel 
was included in the casualties of that day. 

JIM THOMAS' DILEMMA. 
During the afternoon Jim and a Yankee picket had 
been takins: alternate shots at each other and it was the 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 121 

Yankee's time to shoot. Jim was nestlin^- np to the 
Southern side of his tree and thinking^ possibly of all the 
meanness he had ever committed in order to feel as smaU 
as possible, when a cannon ball crashed through the tree, 
cutting oft' its top and sending it by force of gravity, io. 
:he direction of his head. lie was in a dilemma. If he re- 
mained where he was he was liable to be crushed to death 
by the falling timber, and if he left his cover the picket 
would probably kill him. Under ordinary circumstances 
]im may not haA^e been averse to taking a "horn," but in 
this dilemma he was undecided which horn to take, 
whether to bear the ills he had or fly to others," that un- 
fortunately he knew too well. 

"All things come to him who waits," but in this case 
ihere was something coming that Jim didn't care to wait 
for. Doing perhaps the rapidest thinking of his life he 
decided if he had to shuffle off this mortal coil, he would 
do so in a soldierly way, and leaving the protection of 
his tree he gave his antagO'nist a fair shot. Fortunately 
the aim was bad and Jim lived to laugh over his deliver- 
ance from a sea of troubles. 

A POOR GUN OR A POOR GUNNER. 

Obliquely to the right of my position in the line, and 
about 250 yards distant as I estimated it, there was a 
shallow ravine or valley and 20 or 30 feet beyond, on its 
further slope, a Yankee rifle pit. For reasons which read- 
ily occurred to the writer at the time and which will 



122 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS 

probably suggest themselves to the reader, I did not 
take the trouble to verify my estimate of the distance by 
stepping it. About the center of this depression in the 
land was a very large tree— a pine, as I recollect it. On 
the farther side of this tree and hidden by it entirely from 
my view for the larger part of the day was a six-foot 
Yankee soldier, an officer probably, for he had no gun 
in his hand. During the afterno'on, to protect himself 
from the fire of other skirmishers on my right, he had 
'inched" around the tree until his body from his knee 
upward was in plain and unobstructed view of my posi- 
tion. It was drizzling rain and his shoulders were pro- 
tected by a blue blanket thrown across them. It was the 
fairest, prettiest shot I had enjoyed during the day and 
fearing that he would change his position, I aimed at his 
breast rather hurriedly and fired. The shot failed even to 
scare him for he didn't move an inch. Reloading as rap- 
idly as I could, I steadied the gun against the red oak 
and with as deliberate aim as I had ever taken at a squir- 
rel in my boyhood I fired again. And still he moved not. 
Reloading again I took even longer aim and when the 
smoke cleared from the muzzle of the gun he had disap 
yeared. I do not think that he was either killed or dis- 
abled as in such event I would have seen him carried to 
the rear. I am glad to believe that my third shot simply 
convinced him tha't a change of base was desirable and 
ihat he acted upon that conviction while the smoke 
obstructed my vision. 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 123 

And now in at least partial extenuation of what seem- 
ed very poor merkmanship it may not be amiss to say 
that the weapon used was an Austrian rifle and was con- 
sidered a very inferior gun. With an Enfield or Spring- 
field rifle I think I could have made a better record, pro- 
vided always that my nerves had not been rendered un- 
steady by the necessity for dodging minies for six or" 
eight hours. George Harrison, who took care of the tree 
nearest me on the right has always insisted that I did 
redeem my reputation on that day, but with so many 
guns in possible range of the same point it was impos- 
sible fo<r him to have known definitely whose shot was 
effective. Such a result, if positively settled, would be to 
me now only an unpleasant memory and while in the 
discharge of my duty as a Confederate soldier and in 
justice to the cause, for which I fought, I lost no oppor- 
tunty and spared no efifort to lessen the number of effec- 
cives on the other side, it has been agratification to me 
to have no positive knowledge that my efiforts were ever 
successful. 

SAVED FROM DEATH BY A BIBLE. 

Evan H. Lawrence, of Morgan county, and a mem- 
ber of the Oglethorpes, occupied that day a position 
about 20 feet to my left. He had in his left breast pocket 
and covering his heart, a Bible. During the day a minie 
ball struck the book and passing partly through, stop- 
ped at the 7th verse of the 52d chapter of Isiah. But for 



124 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS 

rhe protection furnished by the book it would probably 
"have produced a fatal wound. He told me afterwards 
that the subject matter of that special chapter had been 
m his fhoughts all day. He survived the war, entered 
the ministry of the Baptist church and pfeached his firsc 
sermon from the text named above: "How beautiful 
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth 
good tidings, that publisheth peace," etc. I am satisfied 
that the incident and the peculiar significance of the text 
had a controlling influence in the selection of his life 
work after the war. He fought a good fight, both as a 
soldier and a Christian, and I feel assured, has received 
his certificate of promotion in the ranks of the army 
above. 

At 8 p. m. we were relieved and returned to the 
trenches. Twelve hours' continuous fighting had render- 
ed us hungry for rest as well as food, but our rations of 
both we're destined to be short. The beef issued to us 
had been slauglitered so long and was so badly tainted 
that even a soldier's appetite had to reject it. Only the 
tallow or fat could be used and this was stuck on the 
end of a ramrod, placed in the fiame until the outer sur- 
face was scorched and was then eaten with arelish that 
the rarest dainties of a royal ttable would not bring to 
me now. After a hasty lunch we were again on the tramp. 
The roads w^ere very muddy, the march was obstructed 
by wagons in front and we made only 21-2 miles in four 
hours. There were frepuent halts and at one of them 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 125 

Will Daniel and the writer, standing side by side in the 
mud, both fell asleep. After a time the company moved 
on, but neither of us awoke until jostled by other troops 
•.n passino- us. This incident recalls the fact that on a 
iorced march in Tennessee afterwards, I slept walking. 
The nap must have been a short one, but that I lost con- 
sciousness was proven by the fact that I dreamed of a 
young lady three hundred miles away. 

A little after midnight we were halted on the crest of a 
ridge and thoroughly worn out we lay down to rest, in- 
voking in our hearts if not upon our lips, blessings on 
the man that invented sleep. 

INCIDENTS ON THE KENNESAW LINE. 

On the next day, 19th, we were on reserve picket all 
day in the rain, but fortunately with no fighting to do. 
Relieved at midnight, we retired behind the trenches, as 
the writer hoped, for much-needed rest and sleep. My 
only blanket had been thoroughly soaked by the rain 
and knowing Gen. Johnston's predilection for changing 
base at night, I was in doubt whether to take the chance 
of securing such sleep as I could get in a wet blanket, 
or to build a fire, dry the blanket and fall into the arms 
of Morpheus Hke a gentleman. I chose the latter course, 
spent an hour in t'he drying process and then lay down, 
hopeful of a good night's rest. I had just fitted my angu- 
lar frame to the inequalities o-f the ground, when the 
ominous ''Fall in," Fall in,/ fell like another wet blanket 



■ \/ 



126 UNDER THE STAES AND BARS. 

on my heart and hopes. Out into the mud and darkness 
we tramped, not knowing whither we went and caring, 
perhaps as Httle. We were finally halted near the base of 
Kennesaw Mountain and on the line we were to occupy 
for the next two weeks. Before dismissing the company 
Will Daniel said, ''An attack is expected on this line at 
daylight tomorrow, and I have orders to fortify it. I am 
tired and I am going to sleep. You can entrench or not, 
as you choose, but I want you to distinctly understand 
that you have got to hold this line in the morning, breast- 
works or no breastworks. '- 

Only one man remained awake to fortify and he dug 
his trench in the wrong direction. Fortunately the ex- 
pected attack did not materialize next day and we found 
ample opportunity to entrench before it came on the 

27th. 

i 
SLEEPING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 

The ground through which our trenches ran sloped 
upwards in our rear and as we were in range of the Fed- 
eral skirmish line, the balls that missed the breastworks 
would strike the soil 20 or 30 feet back of them. On the 
night of June 25 I was sleeping under a shelter made o' 
oark stripped from chestnut trees, with Will Dabney as 
bedfellow. About midnight I was awakened by his groan- 
ng and found that he had been wounded while asleep. 
the ball entering his arm above the elbow and stopping 
at the bone without breaking it. W^ J Steed was accus- 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 127 

(omed to use his shoes and socks as a pillow for his head, 
1 habit growin^^ possibl}^ out of his daily effort as com- 
•nissary to make both ends meet He was a little surprised 
one morning to find that a minie ball had passed throvfgh 
his improvised pillow without disturbing his sleep. Geo. 
McLaughlin found one morning a minie imbedded in 
the heel of the shoe he had laid aside for the night. These 
'^ases might indicate that our Northern friends were rath- 
er partial to that kind of in-shoe-raiice, but I am satis- 
fied that George and "Phunie" would have preferred a 
different policy. 

The fire from the skirmish line was so heavy one 
morning and the balls were flying around so carelessly 
that the company was ordered into the trenches. Frank 
Stone and I had not finished our breakfast and as Will 
Daniel had a personal interest in the meal, we secured 
his consent to continue our culinary operations. I was 
sitting by the lire cutting up a piece of beef for hash, 
vvhen one of those careless minies struck my right arm 
near the wrist, ventilating the sleeve of my jacket and 
partiall}^ disabling my arm for ten days. As a souvenir of 
-ihat temporary interruption to the hash business I have 
that minie filed away among other war curios. 

THE VICTIM OF MISPLACED CONFIDENCE 

Our stay at Kennesaw was marked by another spuirrel 
■ncident differing somewhat from that of June i8, already 
referred to. A short distance in the rear of our position 



128 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

a Confeclera'te battery had been planted and between this 
and the enemy's batteries there were frequent artillery 
du6iS. So frequent were these engagements and so accus- 
tortied did we becom^e to the noise of the guns that if 
asleep it failed to awake us, although our battery was only 
se^/enty-five yards aw^ay. On one of these occasions we 
w^e ordered into the trenches for protection from the 
shells. Sitting in the ditch with our faces turned rear- 
ward, some one in the ranks spied a squirrel in the 
branches of a tree standing near our battery. He was ap- 
parentl}^ crazed by the noise of the guns and the shriek 
of the shells flying around him. One of the Oglethorpes 
sang out to him, "Come down in the trenches — you'll 
be killed up there." I don't think the squirrel heard him, 
but the words had barely left his lips, when the little 
animal ran down the tree, struck a bee line for the 
trenches and leaped in among the men. As he made his 
wa}'' down the line, some one stamped on him and put an 
end to his race foi* life. I regretted his fate, not only on 
account of his grey uniform, but for the reason that if he 
was really seeking protection he had found himself the 
victim of miisplaced confidence. 

PEDICULUS CORPORIS. 

On the evening of June 26, Will Daniel said to me, 
"Furnish 47 meni for picket duty tonight. Lieutenants 
l^Ianchard and McLaughlin will go with them. As this is 
a detail, you will remani with the remnant of the com- 



ranv 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 12^ 

^ in the trenches." As Gen. Sherman had nol favoi erl 

!,s with his confidence, neither of us knew how much, 
exemption from that ser^ace meant for both of us on the 
morrow. In detaiUn- non-commissioned officers for this 
(^ctachment. Corp. L. A. R Reab asked to be excuseil 
upon the ground that he had received that day an outfit 
of outer and under clothing— tha-t by changing the old 
garments for the new after a thorough ablution he had 
Succeeded in ridding himself of a camp affliction techni- 
cally known as ''pediculus corporis," but usually char- 
acterized by a less euphonious title— that picket service 
in the pits would certainly bring on a renewal of the at- 
tack, from which he desired most earnestly to have at 
Vast a few days immunity. While he had my sympathy. 
I was unable to consider his excuse a valid one, and re- 
fM-red him to his commanding officer, who also declinect 
to relieve him. It was possibly fortunate that he failed 
as he was captured next day and was kept a prisoner 
until the close of the war, securing in this way exempt- 
ion from further risk in battle and perhaps a longer leas.^ 
of life. 

In this connection it may not be amiss to say that the 
Oglethorpes were, perhaps, as cleanly as any company 
in'the service and yet during the last year of the war I 
do not think a single member was free of this affliction 
for a single day. It was simply a physical impossibility 
to get rid of it. Discussing this matter with my friend, 
W. J. Steed some time since, I made the statement that 



130 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

during our trip tOi Nashville in the winter of '64, when 
we had no opportunity to change our underclothing for 
a month or more, it was our custom before retiring at 
liight, to take our flannel or hickory shirts, close the 
neck and wrist, suspend them over a blazing fire and 
hold them there until the air was filled with the odor of 
frying meat. Steed's reply was, "I think a good deal of 
you, old fellow, but I advise you never to make thaf 
statement to any one who has not unlimited confidence 
n 3'our veracity." And yet I make it here with as full 
conviction of its absolute truthfulness as any statement I 
•nave ever made in any presence. 

And now, bidding the ''pediculus corporis" adieu wit.. 
a great deal of pleasure, I ask the reader's attention to 
another theme. 

PAI'TLE OF KENNESAW 

The 47 men detailed for picket on the evening of the 
.i!6th, went to their posts with seven other companies 
from the regiment, with no premonition of what was in 
store for them on the coming day. There was the usual 
desultory firing during the night, but the sunrise salute 
on the 27th was not confined to a single gun. Every bat- 
i-ery fronting Hardee's corps and French's division, join- 
ed in the chorus. The cannonade was heavy and continu- 
ous until 8 a, m., when the i'\xlcrai bugles sounded th^- 
advance. As the assaulting column approached our skir- 
mish line, the pickets covering the divisions of Cheath- 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 131 

am, Cleburne and French retired to the trenches, where 
the enemy met with a bloody and disastrous repulse. Ir. 
Walker's front their approach was hidden from view bv 
a dense forest growth, except on the extreme rig'ht ad- 
joining French, where the pits running across an open 
field, were held by Co. C, of our regiment. This com- 
pany had retired with French's pickets, leaving a vacancy 
in the line. The Oglethorpes were in reserve, and Maj. 
Allen, misled by Capt. Buckner as to the situation and 
ignorant of the fact that the attacking column had already 
reached our skirmish line, ordered the company into fill 
the gap. Gallantly led by Lieutenants Blanchard and 
McLaughlin, they advanced at a double quick step and 
on reaching the open field were met by a murderous fire 
both from the front and flank, for French's deserted pits 
Yv'ere already occupied by the enemy. The woods to the 
I'^'ft and front were swarming with blue coats. On a por 
lion of the line held by Co. K, they had reached tlie pit- 
and a hand to hand conflict ensued. Men fought with 
clubbed muskets. A short-legged Irishman of that com- 
pany, with the unusual name of John Smith, had his 
gun seized by a stalwart Yankee and there was a strug- 
gle for its possession. The little son of Erin was game, 
but he was overmatched in strength and shoving his op- 
ponent backward as the gun was wrenched from' his 

lands, he said, "To with you and the gun too." 

Lieut. George A. Bailie, of Co. B, had his ear grazed by 
a minie and his antagonist, twenty feet away, reloaded 



132 ITNDEE THE STATIS AND BAES. 

to fire ag-ain; having no weapon but his sword, Lieut, 
B. decided to emulate David in his contest with Goliath, 
and picking up a si one he threw it, striking his foe square- 
ly between tlie eyes and placing him hors de combat 
for a time at least. Further up the line and near the va- 
cant pits, another member of the regiment, whose name 
is not recalled, stood loading and firing as rapidly as his 
leeth could tear the cartridges and his hands could ram 
fhem home. His face was cold and pallid and bloodless, 
but not from fear. Blackened with powder stain, through 
which the perspiration trickled in streams, his eyes 
flashed defiance with every flash from his gun, while dis- 
daining the protection of the pits he stood there a perfect 
demon of war, with no thought save to kill. 

And what of the Oglethorpes? They had picked up 
something too hot to hold. Attacked both in front and 
flank by largely superior num-bers they were in a verit 
able hornet's nest. They fought bravely to hold their 
position, but the odds were too great and George Mc- 
Laughlin, seeing that it was wholesale death or capture, 
iang out, "Save yourselves, boys." The place was too 
hot to hold and almost to let go. For two or three hund- 
red yards to the rear was an open field sloping upwards. 
To retire through this bullet swept as it was at short 
range, was simply to court death. Obliquely to the rear 
was a piece of woodland from which some protection 
could be gained. Most of the men made a break for this. 
Some of them ran squarely into the arms of the enemy 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 1^^3 

who "had possession of the woods, and were captured. 
Some failed to leave the pits in time and were taken pris- 
oners there. vSome ran the gauntlet safely, while some 
brought to the rear in frame or limb a perpetual souvenir 
of that warm day. With the first volley as they entered 
the open field, Lieut Blanchard was wounded and W J. 
Steed fell by his side with a ball through his lungs. 
A moment later A. AL Hilzheim, who had joined us only 
a day befo^re, had received a fatal wound, and Wyart 
Chamblin had fallen with a shattered leg. When the order 
to retire was given, W. J. Steed, John Weigle and Char- 
Ve Eayliss attempted to make their way to the rear 
through the open field. Steed had gone but a little way 
when a ball crashed through his hand. As he slung it in 
pain, another shattered his elbow and he fell. As he lay 
;here suffering agony from three wounds a fourth bar- 
broke the same arm near the shoulder. A little way off 
Charlie Eayliss lay dead and John Weigle had fallen 
with a broken thigh. The Federal line was re-formed in 
rear of the pits and Steed and Weigle were ordered to 
come in and surender. They replied that they were un- 
able to go in, but that if litter bearers were sent out they 
•ould be carried in. Just then a shell from one of French's 
batteries burst over the Federal line and they took to the 
^voods without the ceremony of a formal dismissal. 
Steed and Weigle took advantage of a temporary lull in 
the firing and renewed their efforts to escape Steed was 
so weakened bv loss of blood from his four wounds that 



134 QNDEE, THE STAES A^^D BAK 7' 

he could only rise, stagger a little way and fall., then 
rest for a time and renew the efTo^rt, while Weigle was 
forced to crawl and drag his wounded limb. In the ef- 
fort he was shot in the other leg, butwas finally reached 
by the littler bearers and taken to the rear, one of them 
being fatally wounded as they bore him* ofif. After re- 
peated efforts, occupying an hour or more, Steed reach- 
ed the haven and swooned away. In this condition he 
was found and rescued. He still lives, but an armless 
sleeve furnishes constant reminder of the terrible exper- 
ience of that June day. Weigle, poor fellow, a model 
soldier and a brave, true man, died from his wounds. 

And now, though it is due to the truth of history, I 
regret to record the fact, that while these comrades of 
mine, whO' had been shot down on the soil of their own 
Stale for defending their homes and firesides, were mak- 
ing in bitter agony their heroic struggle for life, Federa^ 
soldiers, schooled in Sherman's creed that ''War is hell'' 
a'nd that "the humanities of life have no place" amid its 
horrors, concealed behind trees and under the shelter of 
rifle pits, were trying to murder these men as they lay 
maimed and mangled and bleeding and helpless upon 
the ground. It is not a pleasant picture, and I am glad 
to be able to shift the reader's attention to another that 
blooms out in striking and refreshing contrast to this 
product of Northern civilization. At the same hour and 
less than a mile away, the attack of Palmer's corps on 
Cleburne's and Cheatham's divisions met with a bloody 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 135 

repulse and as the Union line retired, exploding shells 
or paper wrapping from the rifle cartridges, fired the 
woods where the Federal dead and wounded lay. "Cease 
firing," rang out froan brave Pat Cleburne's lips, and 
t'he rugged heroes of Granbury, Govan and Lowry, 
dropped their arms and leaping the breastworks they 
hurried out under the summer sun and the fiercer heat 
of the blazing woods to rescue and save their fallen and 
helpless foes. Comment is unnecessary and if it were, as 
i- reconstructed citizen of a reconstructed union, I have 
no heart to make it. 

Tn addition to the casualties already named Ab. 
Mitchell of the Oglethorpes, lost an arm, and W. W. 
Bussey, W. R. Morris, Bob Prather, Billy Pardue, Ben 
Rowland and Randall Reeves were otherwise wounded. 
L. A. R. Reab, Joe Derry, Willie Eve, Geo. Harrison, 
Bud Howard, W. Chamblin, Jabe Marshall, Polk Thom- 
as, John Cofiin and Lott were captured. George Pour- 
nelle's fate was never positively known. Those who es- 
caped thought he was captured and those who were cap- 
tured thought he escaped. He was the last to leave his 
pit, was probably killed there and falling in it was thus 
concealed from the view of other members of the com- 
pany. He was my friend and messmate, brave and kind 
and true. Three years' comradeship had drawn us very 
close together and the mystery of "his death has always 
saddened me. 

The pickets were rallied by Major Allen on a line 



136 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

nearer onr trenches, but the Federals made no further 
effort to advance. The brave stand made by our regi- 
ment on the skirmish line checked the assaulting columii 
and by 11:30 the battle had ended. Sherman had lost 
3,000 and Johnston only 630, one-eighth of it falling on 
the 63rd Ga. Gen. W. H. T. Walker complimented the 
regiment on its gallantry, but suggested that it be tem- 
pered with a little more discretion. 

ROLL CALL AFTER BATTLE. 

Few scenes in a soldier's life are touched with sadder 
interest than the first roll call after a battle. As Orderly 
sergeant of the Oglethorpes I had to call its roll, per- 
haps a thousand times, and yet I do' not now remember 
one that touched my heart more deeply than that which 
closed that summer day at Kennesaw. The voices of 
i\venty-two of those who had so promptly answered to 
;he call of duty a few short hours before, were hushed 
and silent when their names were called. .Sorn^e with Fed- 
eral bayonets guarding them, were tramping to prison 
dens, perhaps to slow and lingering death. Some with 
mangled form and limb were suffering more than death, 
while some with white cold faces turned toward the 
stars, were answering roll call on the other shore. Stand- 
ing beside the breastworks on that summer evening, 
under the shadow of grim and silent Kennesaw, with 
twilight deepening" into night, there were shadows on 
all our hearts as well, shadows that stretched bevond us 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. i:^7 

and fell on hearts and hearthstones far away, shadows 
that rest there still and never will be lifted. 

UNDER TWO FLAGS. 

Some tnne in '63 there came to the regiment a young- 
and beardless boy, "the only son of his mother and she 
was a widow." Timid and shrinking, he was assigned to 
a company in which he had neither friend nor acquaint- 
ance, and he soon grew homesick and despondent. He 
had been my brother's schoolboy friend and in pity for 
his loneliness I made an effort to secure his transfer to 
the Oglethorpe's. His captain declined to approve the 
papers and the effort failed. Frail and unfitted to endure 
tiie hardships of a soldier's life, he nevertheless bore up 
bravely under the constant toil and danger of the Dalton 
a]id Atlanta campaigr; until the battle of Kennesaw was 
fought. His comianv was on the skirmish line that day 
and suffered heavily. When the Federal line had been re- 
].ulsed and in the iuish (^f the twilight airthe roll wa^ 
called, he was reported ''missing," a word that carried 
with it 10 many a lonely home a world of agony in those 
war days. 

Two hours later a member of his company came to me 
and said, "Dick is lymg dead between the picket lines, it 
1 can get two others, will you go with us to find the body 
and bring it in?" Prowling around at night between 
two hostile skirmish Hues in constant expectation of 
being shot by either side was not a pleasant duty, but I 



188 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

thovig-ht of his widowed mother and, and told him I 
w^oiild go. He went away to secure other help, but learn- 
ed in some way that he had been mistaken; that the dead 
soldier lying cold out under the starlight was not Dick, 
but another member of the regiment. A few days later 
we abandoined the Kennesaw line and I heard no more 
of my boy friend imtil the war had ended. Then I learn- 
ed through returning prisoners that he had been captur- 
ed at Kennesaw; that under the bitter cruelties of prison 
life he had grown sick and helpless and was slowly dy- 
ing; that in his weakness and under the inhuman policy 
of Grant and Lincoln, hopeless of release by exchange, 
he wais offered a «:hance of renewed life if he would con- 
sent to serve against the Indians, who were giving trou- 
ble in the far West. Lee's shadowy line was growing 
thinner day by day. Hood's reckless raid on Nashville 
had ended in disaster aaid the end had nearly come. With 
the shadow of the grave resting on every prison wall 
and more, perhaps, from love of mother thain of life, he 
yielded. But the seeds of death were sown too deeply in 
his boyish frame. The prison horrors, thait merit, but find 
no place on Lincoln's monument, nor Grant's mauso- 
leum, hatd done their work. A few short months and 
somewhere under the Western sky, far from home and 
kindred, the prairie grass was weaving in the summer 
sunshine, its creeping tendrils over his lonely grave. 

Poor, gentle-hearted Dick! Deaths were common, sad- 
ly common in those old days but the memorv of his fate 



THK ])Al/r()N AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 139^ 

has never been recalled in all these years without a senje 
of sadness and of sorrow. My heart has never judged 
him save in pity and in kindness always, for I am sure 
few mounds of earth have lain above a purer or a s^ent- 
er heart. 

AN UxNf-DRESS PARADE. 

In active service, brass baincs and "dress parades" fell 
largely into "innocuous desuetude." When a band was 
seen going to the rear it vv'as considered prima facie evi- 
dence that there was a fight on hand, while an order for 
dress parade dispelled any apprehension of an early 
engagement. I recall one instance, however, of an un- 
dress parade on the firing line and withaut a brass band 
accompaniment. 

In the early days of July, '64, the Northern and South- 
ern banks of the Chattahoochee formed for a time the 
skirmish lines of Johnston's and Sherman's armies. One 
day some of our pickets established with their oppon- 
ents on the other side a self-appointed truce. No firing 
was to be done during its existence, and proper notice 
was to be given of its termination. The weather was 
warm and a squad of Yankee pickets relying upon the 
honor of their Southern foes, decided to take a swim in 
the river. Stripping themselves to the bathing suit fur- 
nished by nature, they plunged in and were enjoying the 
bath immensely. The Confederate cfhcer of the day be- 
coming apprised of the temporary cessation of hostili'- 



140 TTNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

ties, sent a courier down with orders to stop the truce 
and renew the firing at once. The bathers were in plain 
view and in easy range of our rifle pits. Notice was given 
them of the orders and they begged to be allowed time 
to dress and resume their positions in their own pits. The 
courtesy was accorded, but their toilets were not made 
in either slow or common time. There was a hasty run 
on the bank, a hurried leap into the pits and then the 
crack of the rifles announced the end of the truce and of 
the undress parade ais well. 

RECKLESS COURAGE. 

On the same line, on another day, two opposing pick- 
ets, who had been taking alternate shots at eacli other, 
finally agreed on ai challenge given by one and accepted 
by the other, to leave the protection of their pits and fight 
to a finish. The gurgling waters of the Chattahoochee 
lay between them. Standing on either bank, in full view 
of each other and without protection, they loaded and 
fired until one was killed. 

It was simply a life thrown recklessly away, 
without reason, and with no possible good to 
the cause for which he fought. Some weeks later Bob 
Swain, who had been transferred to our company from 
the 1 2th Ga. Battalion and to whom reference has al- 
ready been made in connection with the raising of Fort 
Sumter's fallen flag, was on the skirmish line at Lovejoy 
Station. The Yankee pickets were probably six hundred 



I 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 141 

yards away, but Lhey kept up a continuous fire and their 
balls would frequently strike the head logs of our rifle 
pits. So ainxious was Bob to avail himself of every op- 
portunity to secure a shot and so utterly reckless of dan- 
ger, that he refused to enter the pit and remained in an 
exposed position until he was shot through the head and 
killed. 

Picket firing in war, except when rendered necessary 
by an attempted advance by one side or the other, is in 
my opinion, simply legalized murder. The losses sus- 
tained in this way can never affect the final result. "Only 
a picket or two now and then" does not count ''in the 
news of the battle," but "in some little cot on the moun- 
tain" the shadow of lifelong grief falls just as heavily on 
the lonely wife or mother as if the victim had hallowed 
by his life blood a victory that changed the fate of a 
nation . 

WATERMELON AS A PERSUADER. 

During the summer of '64, Aaron Rhodes of the Ogle- 
thorpes, fell sick and was sent to the hospital at Greens- 
boro, Ga. Dr. H. V. M. Miller, the "Demosthenes of 
the mountains," and an ante-bellum professor in the 
Medical College at Augusta, Ga., was the surgeon in 
charge . 

Aaron's father secured for him a leave of absence to vis- 
it his home and at its expiration went to Greensboro to 
procure an extension, as he was still unfit for duty. Dr. 



142 UNDER THE STARS AXL 13ARS. 

Miller told him that k was hnpossible to grant the re- 
quest, as strict orders had just been received to allow no 
further leaves; that the instructions were imperative and 
gave him no discretion whatever. Mr. Rhodes argued 
and pleaded, but the Doctor's decision was positive and 
final. At the close of the interview, Mr. R. gave the 
assurance that his son would be sent up at once, and 
then in taking his leave said, "By the way, Doctor, 1 
brought you those Richmond county melons I promised 
you when I wais here last and they are now at the depot 
for you." "Ah; thank you," said the Doctor, "and by the 
way, please say to Aaron, that after reconsidering the 
matter, he can remain at liome as long as he wishes, or 
until able to return to duty." And Aaron's melancholy 
days were not "the saddest of the year." 

SAVED FROM A NORTHERN PRISON BY A 
NOVEL. 

In July '64, the writer passed through his first and only 
experience either as prisoner or an inmate of a hospital. 
Sherman was nearing Atlanta and his pickets lined the 
northern bank of the Chattahoochee. I had been sick for 
several days and Dr. Gumming, acting assistant surgeon, 
insisted that I should go to the rear. With me there went 
from the division hospital to Atlanta a boy soldier, who 
did not seem to be over 14 years of age, and I do not 
think he w^as as tall as his gun. If not the original of Dr. 
Ticknor's "Little Gififen of Tennessee," he was certamly 



THE DAI/rOX AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 143 

his coniiterpart for he was "utter Lazarus, heels to head." 
Atlanta was only a distributing hospital. The sick were 
being shipped to points on the Atlanta and West Point 
Road. Reports from that section were anything but 
favorable Si^k and wounded v\ ere said to be "dying like 
sheep." Having no special desire to die in that way or 
in any other way, if possible to avoid it, I asked assign- 
ment to some hospital on the Georgia Railroad. "All 
full," said the surgeon. "No room anywhere except on 
Atlanta and West Point Rdad . Train leaves at 7 o'clock 
in the morning. Report here at that hour." As I had fully 
determined mt to go on that road I reported at 8 o'clock 
instead of 7, and a few hours later I was pleasantly quar- 
tered in the hospital at Oxford, Ga., where I had spent 
tw^o years of college life. Four years before, almost to a 
day, I had left its classic halls Httle dreaming that I 
sTiould return to its familiar scenes in sickness and in 
weariness, a victim of grim visaged war. For many 
months the college exercises had been suspended and 
the chapel, recitation and literary society halls were 
being irtilized as hospital wards. At the time of my ar- 
rival the ladies and older citizens, who had not beenr 
absorbed by the war, felt some apprehensions of a raid 
into the village by Sherman's cavalry, which was only 
forty miles away. Among these ladies, however, there 
was one to wiiom the expectation of such an event 
brought no feeHng of anxiety. Born and reared in the 
North, she felt assured that no Union soldier's vandal 



144 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

hand would molest any of her possessions. Asked by one 
of her neighbors what she proposed to do in the event oi 
their coming she replied, "They'll never trouble me or 
mine. I am just going to sit down and see the salvation 
of the Lord." How it looked when she saw it, v/ill appear 
a little further on. 

The old college chapel where I had attended morn- 
ing and evening prayer during my college course had 
been converted into a hospital dining room. On July 22, 
a few days after my arrival, the convalescents were tak- 
ing their midday meal in this room when the clatter of a 
horse's feet Avas heard. There was some commotion out- 
side and the men hurriedly left the table to investigate 
its cause. It required but a few minutes to size up the 
situation. A few feet from the door on a horse covered 
with foam sat a red-headed Yankee in blue uniform and 
with full equipment. The expected raid had materialized 
and Garrard's division of Federal cavalry had possession 
of the town. Most of the convalescents returned hastily 
to their quarters without finishing their dinner, The 
writer, not knowing when or where his next meal would 
be taken returned to the table and replenished his com- 
missary department to its fullest capacity. The raider!> 
scattered through the village, pillaging to some extent 
private residences, destroying government cotton and 
in this way burning the home of Mr. Irvine, an old citi- 
zen of the place. In due time they reached the premises 
of the lady, to whom reference has already been made. 



THE 1) ALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 145 

Her husband was not at home. He was an honored min- 
ister of the Methodist church and was considered the 
champion snorer of the conference to which he belonged. 
It was said that his family had become so accustomed to 
the sonorous exercise of his talent in this line that dur- 
ing his absence from home at night, they were forced to 
substitute the grinding of a coffee mill to secure sleep. I 
am not prepared, however, to vouch for the absolute 
accurac}^ of this stastement. Whether on this occasion he 
had received intimation of the enemy's approach, and 
emulating the example of other male citizens of the vil- 
lage, had made himself conveniently absent, I do not 
novy recall. His wife, possibly relying on the fact that she 
was Northern born, or on providential interposition, for 
exemption fro^m any war indemnity that her blue-coated 
guests might be disposed to exact, received them cour- 
teously and as long as their levy was confined to chick- 
ens from the barnyard or hams from the smoke house 
she managed to maintain her equilibrium. But when, -in 
addition to these minor depredations, they bridled her 
pet family horse and led him forth to ''jine .the cavalry," 
patience ceased to be a virtue. This crowning indignity 
furnished the straw that fractured the spinal column of 
the proverbial camel. Slie rose, in her righteous wrath 
and in plain and vigorous English she gave them her 
opinion of the Yankee army in general, and of her un- 
welcom«e guests in particular. Her indignant protest was 
unavailing. The stable was thenceforth tenantless, and 



146 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

as Tennyson might have said, she mourned for the tramp 
of a vanished horse and the sound of a neigh that was 
still. 

At 3 p. m. the convalescents were formed into line 
-with orders to report to the provost marshal. We had 
marched but a little way, when a Federal colonel ordered 
us to disband until 5 p. m. I had borrowed the novel 
''Macaria" from a Miss Harrison in the village and decid- 
ed to spend the interval in completing its perusal. I re- 
tired to my cot in the college chapel, but somehow the 
book did not interest me. Visions of a Federal prison 
peered at me from every page and I gave it up. Having 
made an engagement to take tea with Mr. Harrison's 
famdly that evening, I concluded, if allowed to leave the 
building, to return the book. Going down to reconnoiter 
I saw one of our men walk up the street without being 
halted, and with as indifferent air as I could assume, I 
followed suit. 

Reaching Mr. Harrison's house I found the family 
anxious and excited. Mr. H., to avoid capture, had con- 
cealed himself in the garden. I expressed my regrets to 
.Mrs. H. chat 1 was unable to keep my engagement, as 
I had another, which was a little more pressing. She in- 
sisted that I remain with them until the hour for leaving 
and I sat down to meditate on the fate that the future 
had in store for me. WHien a boy T had often sung the 
old hymn containing the words: 

"Sweet prospects, sweet birds and sweet flowers," 



I 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 147 

but the prospect that loomed up before me that summer 
afternoon had no Ravor of sugar or honey and, as I now 
recall it, not even a trace of sorghum^ molasses to shade 
its bitterness. As T sat there on the piazza, a Federal bri- 
gade passed in a short distance of the house followed by 
a crowd of contrabands. One of the soldiers came in and 
took a ham. from the pantry without taking the tr:)uble 
to ask for it. Others passed through the yard on other 
errands. Nothing was said to me and I made no special 
effort to attract their attention. I was saying nothing, 
but I was doing some pretty tall thinking. The idea had 
occurred to me, either, as Judge Longstreet has said, by 
''internal suggestion or the bias of jurisprudence," that 
if I remained quietly where I was, I might be overlooked 
and I decided to make the experiment. At 5 p. m. the 
squad of convalescents was re-formed and marched off 
tinder guard, passing within a short distance of where I 
sat. Possibly I felt that my place was properly among 
them, but T felt no- disposition to halt them- in order to 
secure it and my heart grew lighter as the line grew dim 
in the distance and finally vanished. I have sometimes 
been accused of being absent-minrded, but on that occas- 
ion I had reason to be grateful for being absent-bodied. 
At nightfall I returned to my hospital cot and slept 
the sleep of the just. I was in no hurry to rise next morn- 
ing until at 9 a. m., some one came in and reported that 
all the raiders had shaken the dust of Oxford from their 
feet. My escape was due to "Macaria" and for that reason 



148 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

I have al\\-ays felt kindl}- towards the book and its auth- 
or. In my condition a Northern prison would have 
meant for mc slov/ .^eath and an unmarked o^rave and 
these records would have been unwritten or penned bv 
other hands. 

A SLAVES LOYALTY. 

On the same day Col. H. D. Capers of the I2>th Ga. 
Batitalion, was in Oxford recuperating from a wound 
received in Virginia. Being advised of the approach of 
Garrard's division, he leaped through a rear window of 
his residence and taking a country road proceded to 
change his base at double-quick step. Learning of his 
escape a squad of cavalry started in pursuit and on reach- 
ing a fork in the road they asked a negro standing l)y 
which route Col. Capers had taken. The slave, faithful to 
his master's friend, intentionally misinformed them and 
before the error was discovered the colonel was safely 
hidden. 

This act of faithfulness recalls the unswerving loyalty 
of the race during the horrors of a four years' struggle, 
whose issue meant their freedom. Suggesting as it does 
the ties of friendship between master and servant in the 
old slave days, it furnishes a reason for the kindly inter- 
est the South still feels in the remnant of a class that 
is fading from the earth and may account for the further 
fact that on this institution, despite its faults, there rested 
for a hundred years Heaven's benediction and the smile 
of God. 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 140 

ONE AGAINST THREE THOUSAND. 

Rumors of the raid harl been current for several clays 
),efore its occurrer.ce, and a Mr. Jones, a citizen of Co/- 
invs^ton, Ga., whose hatred of everything- bhie had been 
inflamed by reports of outrages committed by Sherman's 
army, pledged himself to kill the first Federal soldier 
who approached his home. Learning that Garrard's divis- 
ion had reached the town, he loaded his sQuirrel rifle and 
taking his stand in front of the court house he awaiteil 
his opportunity. He had been on post but a little while 
when a Federal cavalryman approached with a squad of 
convalescents captured at the hospital. Jones allowed 
him to come within close range and then raised his rifle. 
The Yankee shouted to him: "Don't shoot," but his pur- 
pose was not to be changed and his victim dropped from 
tlie saddle. Reloading his rifle and changing his position 
to another street a second squad of prisoners came by 
and again his rifle brought down its game. Reloading the 
third time he intercepted a platoon of cavalry and fired 
into it, wounding two of them. They captured him, shot 
him- to death and then beat out his brains with the butts 
of their rifles. He doubtless anticipated such a fate and 
went coolly to certain death with no hope of fame and 
with only the satisfaction oi getting two for one. 

Geo. Daniel, a Confederaite quartermaster, chanced to 
be at home on furlough in Covington on the same day. 
He had been out bird hunting that morning and on his 
return wa>s captured by the Yankees, who enraged by 



150 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS 

the killing of two of their men by Jones, determined to 
shbot Daniel simply because he was found wath a gun in 
his 'hand. His protest that he was out for no hostile pur- 
pose availed him nothing. He was ordered to face his 
executioners and an effort was made to bind a handker- 
chief over his eyes. He drew it away and said, "No, a 
Confederate soldier can face death without being blind- 
folded." The rifles rang out and he fell, another victim to 
the humane influence of Northern civilization. 

A BRAVE CAROLINA MAIDEN. 

During my stay at the Oxford hospital a number of 
ladies who' had refugeed from Charleston, So. Ca., were 
making their home in the village. Among them was a 
Miss Fair, a beautiful girl with a wealth of wavy brown 
hair. An ardent Southerner and anxious to benefit the 
cause she loved, she had determined to visit Sherman's 
armv around Atlanta as a spy, bringing out such infor- 
mation as she would be able to procure. 

The raven locks were sacrificed, the face 
and hands were died, a cracker bonnet and 
homespun dross were donned and supplied with 
a basket of parched ground peas she tramped aroimd the 
Federal camps, keeping her eyes and ears open. Making 
the trip safely, she returned to Oxford and mailed a let- 
ter to Gov. Brown, giving him the infoirmation she had 
obtained as to Sherman's force and plans. When Gar- 
rard's division entered Oxford, this letter was in the post 



THE DALTON AND ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 151 

office and was captir-cJ with other mail matter. It was 
read by the raiders after they left the town and a squad 
was sent back to search for the fair writer, but fortunate- 
ly she was securely hidden in the attic of Mr. River's 
home, while her father was concealed in a well oii the 
premises. Few braver acts have been recorded of grim 
visaged warriors than the daring feat accomplished by 
this fair- faced daughter of the South. 

A GEORGIA "HOSS." 

While the raiders were in possession of the town, one 
of them belongmg to a Michigan regiment rode up to- 
the gate of the home where this girl was staying. The 
lady of the house was sitting on the porch and the cav- 
alryman saluted her with the remark, "See what a fine 
Georgia "boss" I have." *'Yes," s'he replied, ''one you 
stole I suppose." Turning to her ten-year-old son stand- 
ing by the soldier said, ''Here, boy, hold this ''boss." 
"I'd see you at the d-— 1 first," replied the little Confed- 
erate. This boy, now a middle-aged man, tells me that 
it was his first and last use of improper language in the 
presence of his Christian mother, and that for some reas- 
on she failed on that occasion to administer even a mild 
reproof. 



CHAPTER VI. 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 

A.s we marched more than 800 miles in this campaign, 
and as a record of these movements would propably inter- 
est only my old comrades, the general reader has my 
cheerful permission to skip the fallowing condensed ex- 
tracts from my journal and to turn his or her attention 
to the special incidents which succeed them. On Sept. 8, 
'64, two days after the enemy had abandoned our front 
at Love joy Staitioii, we moved up to a position one mile 
above Jonesboro, remaining there ten days. On the i8th 
we moved to Iwiirburn and on the 19th to Palmetto, 
where we fortified our position and remained until the 
2gth. (Jen. Mercer having been assigned to another field 
of duty,. Gen. Smith, on the 25th, assumes command of 
our brigade. On the 26th President Davis reviewed the 
army and on the 28th Gen. Hardee, having asked to be 
relieved, took leave of his old corps and Gen. Cheatham 
was made corps commander. On the 29th we began our 
northward march for the purpose of destroying Sher- 
man's line of communication, passing by easy stages of 
ten to twenty miles a day, over the ground we had tra- 
versed in the recent campaign and reaching the vicinity 
of Dalton, Cia., on Oct. [3th. Here we destroyed three 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 153 

miles of railroad track, burning the cross-^ties and bend- 
ing the rails by laying them across the burning ties and 
twisting them around the trees that stood near the track. 
After capturing the garrisons at Dalton and Tilton, and 
tearing up a section of the E. T. & Ga. R. R., we left on 
the 14th for Ga'dsden, Ala., en route to Nashville. Hood 
had decided to abandon the plan of campaign mapped 
out by President Davis and himself and to advance into 
Tennessee. 

Paissing through Villanow, Lafayette, Alpine and Blue 
Pond, we arrived at Gadsden Oct. 20th. Resting here a 
day we are off again and for four days are tramping 
over the arid stretches of Sand Mountain, reaching the 
vicinity of Decatur, Ala., on the evening of the 26th. My 
journal for that day has this entry: "March delayed bv' 
bridge falling in. Very muddy tramp after nightfall. 
Slept under a corn crib." Two days later it 'has this en- 
try: "Two ears of corn issued to each man as rations." 

Decatur was occupied by a Federal force and after 
some skirmishing on the 27th and 28th we resumed our 
march, passing through Coiirtland on the 30th, Tuscum- 
bia on the 31st and camping- near the Tennessee river 011 
the evening of that day. Here we remained until Nov 
13th, when we crossed the river on a pontoon bridge and 
camped near Florence. On the 14th we fortified our po- 
sition and on the 19th Hood began his march to inter- 
cept Schofield in his effort to unite with Thomas at Nash- 
ville. Our brigade was detached to ferry the wagon train 



154 U^DER THE STARS AND BARS. 

across the river and on the 20th we tramped 12 or .4 
miles through a driving snowstorm^ in a bitterly cold 
wind to reach Cheatham's Ferry. I recall the fact that my 
face became so thoroughly chilled that the snow that fell 
00 it failed to melt. After a week's work at the ferry, we 
left on the 28th in charge ci thewagon train to rejoin 
our command. On Dec. ist we struck the Nashville turn- 
pike and on the 2d received our first information of the 
battle of Franklin, which had occurred Nov. 30, and in 
which our division had suffered so heavily. Passing 
throug'^h Columbia and Spring Hill on the 3d and Frank- 
lin and the battle ground in its fro'Ut on the 4th we re- 
joined our division near Nashville on the 5th. Next day 
the Oglethorpes were on the picket line, were relieved 
on the 7th and on the 8th our brigade was ordered to 
report to Gen. Forrest near Murfreesboro. Under For- 
rest's directio'n the 9th and loth were spent in tearing up 
railroad track encased in snow and sleet, terribly cold 
woirk. 

Two days' rest with the thermometer at 9 degrees and 
on the 13th ^ve are again destroying railroad track near 
Lavergne. On the morning of the 15th our brigade and 
Palmer's started oiit under Forrest to capture a Federal 
supply train. Fording Stone river and marching 10 or 12 
miles in the direction of Mufreesboro Forrest is halted 
by an order from Hood to hold himself in readmess to 
go to his aid, as the battle of Nashville was in progress. 
Next day we moved back to the Nashville turnpike to 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 155 

await the issue at Nashville. During the night Forrest 
received news of Kood's defeat and with it orders to 
fo<rm a junction with the retreating army at Columbia. 
As the details of our march to that point, of our assign- 
ment to tlie rear guard and of the retreat to Corinth, 
Miss., will be given in succeeding sketches, it is unneces- 
sary to duplicate them here. 

A CHRISTMAS DAY WITH FORREST. 

It was the winter of 64, and to those of us who wore the 
grey it w^as likewise the "winter of our dibcontent." The 
hopes of the Confederacy were on the wane. The clouds 
that hung above it had no silver lining, free or otherwise. 
Sherman was "marching throug'h Georgia," leaving in 
his wake the ashes of many a Southern home. Hood's 
reckless raid on Nashville had ended in disaster and his 
ragged battalions were making tracks for the Tennessee 
river, (some of them, with bare feet) at a quickstep known 
to Confederate tactics as ''double distance on half ra- 
tions.'*' The mxorale of the army was shattered if not de~ 
stt'oyed. If the soliloquy of a gaunt Tennesseean as he 
rose from a fall in the mud on the retreat fairly repre- 
sented tiie sentiment of his comrades, it was badly shat- 
tered. He is reported to have said: ''Ain't we in a 

of a fix, a one-eyed president, a one-legged general and 
a one-horse Confederacy." 

The Oglethorpes had fortunaitely escaped the butchery 
at Franklin against which Forrest had so strongly 



156 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

protested. As this immunity was due to our having ])een 
detained with Smith's brigade to ferry a salt train across 
the Tennessee river, salt had literally "saved our bacon.'' 
After rejoining- the army, we had been again detached 
to operate under Forrest near Murfreesboro and in this 
way had missed the rout at Nashville. Aside from these 
immunities the campaign had been one of exceptional 
hardships. The weather was bitterly cold and our ward- 
I'obefe were not excessively heavy. The writer wore a 
thin fatigue jacket, with no overcoat and slept under a 
single blanket v;ith the thermometer at nine degrees 
above zero. For a week prioa* to the retreat we had been 
engaged in the pleasant pasftime of handling with un- 
gloved hands, railroad ties and rails encased in sleet and 
snow. In addition to these hardships our comnnissary 
.depa'rtment was but illy supplied. And yet I cannot retail 
a single complaint made by a soldier during that cam- 
paign. It is my deliberate conviction, based upon this and 
similar evidence, that the Confederate soldier fought 
harder on shorter rations and grumbled less under great- 
er privations than any soldier in history. The battle of 
Nashville opened on the morning oif December 15th and 
foir two days, thirty miles away, we listened to the thun- 
der of the artillery and anxiously awaited the issue. At 
I a. m. Dec. 17th we were aroused to begin the longest, 
hardest forced march of our four years' service. Colum- 
bia, the point of junction with Hood's retreating army, 
is sixty miles away afnd we have to make it in forty-eight 



NASHNILLE CAMPAIGN. 1)7 

hours or run the risk of almost certain capture by a force 
ten times our own. It is cold, dark and raining — a dreary 
combination. The roads are a mass of mud and before 
we have tramped a nn'le one of ni}- shoe strings 1)reaks, 
leaving the shoe imbedded six inches deep in the yield- 
ing soil. Fishing it out, I resume the march with one 
bare foot, but the rocks in the mud cut and bruise it at 
every step and I am forced to stop for repairs. Taking the 
strap from my rolled blanket, slits are cut in the flaps of 
the shoe, the strap is buckled around so as to hold it in 
place, aind I hurry forward to rejoin my command. For 
tweny-one hours we plow wearil}^ through the mud, 
camping at lo p. m. after marching 35 miles. Dr. Mc- 
Intyre, in one of his Lyceum lectures, says that he had 
no proper appreciation of either absolute silence or ab- 
solute darkness until he stood within the central cham- 
l)er of the V/yandotte cavern. If he had tramped with 
Forrest that winter day he would probably have added 
to his experience an adequate conception of absolute 
fatigue. 

Five hours' rest and we are again on the march, buc 
with slower step, for the strain of the previous day has 
told on the boys. In the early morning we halt to rest 
and I breakfast on an ear of corn picked up by the road- 
side, smearing it with black grease scraped from the bot- 
tom of my frying pan. About midday Forest dismounts 
a number his cavalry and gives up his own horse for a 
time to help the ''barefoot" brigade along. By 10 v. \n. 



lo8 UNDER THE STAE8 AND BARS. 

we have made 25 miles and are completely fagged. Only 
five of the thirty Oglethorpes reach camp that night, 
Dick Morris, the writer, and three others whose names 
I do not recall. Dick is short-limbed, but he hais the grit 
and. the habit of getting there. On reaching Columbia 
VvC are assigned to tlie rear guard under Forrest and 
Walthall, who are instructed by Hood to sacrifice every 
man in the command if necessary to ensure the safety O'f 
his army. Manning trenches half filled with snow and 
holding the enemy in check for a few days so as to give 
Hood a fair sta^rt in the race, we begin our retreat Dec. 
22 and on Christmas Eve camp near Pulaski, Tenn. 
Coiled up in a single blanket on the cold, bare ground, 
no visions of Santa Claus nor hopes of a Chrismas menu 
on the miorrow brighten our dreams. 

Early Christmas morning we are gathered around the 
camp fire awating orders to march. Frank Stone, tall and 
thin, so thin that Charlie Goetchius had advised him al- 
ways to present a side view to the enemy, as a minie ball 
would never reach his anatomy in that position, ambles 
up on a horse he had secured from one of the cav.^.lry. 
Frank had tried manfully to keep up with the proces- 
sion. Half sick, his shoes worn soleless and his feet lacer- 
ated and bleeding, he had marched when every step was 
agony and had crawled over the rocky portions of tlie 
road on his hands and knees until human nature could 
endure no more. Fortunately one ol Forrest's cavalry 
gave him a lift that saved him from a Northern prison. 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN- 1^9 

Frank had no saddle and to supply that need the boys 
had piled his steed with blankets to a depth of five or 
six inches. As he rode up his eye fell on a lot of cookin- 
utensils tha^t ha'd to be left for lack of transpo.rtation, and 
turning to Will Daniel he said. 'IJeutenant, hadn't T 
better take along some of these?" Gen. Forrest was 
standing a few feet away, grave and silent. Attracted by 
Frank's question, he turned and inspecting the blanket 

outfit for a moment he said,. "I think you've got a 

sight more now than you're entitled to." Frank made no 
reply, but the criticism was thoroughly unjust for no 
truer, braver soldier wore the grey. 

The bugle sounds and we are again on the march. 
About midday we halt on the summit of a ridge with an 
old line of breastworks skirting its crest. Glad to ha ye a 
rest we adjust ourselves to take advantage of the respite, 
when the ominous 'Tall in." "Fall in" comes down thJ 
line. The ranks are hastily formed, the trenches are man- 
ned and Morton's battery is planted a short distance in 
their rear and coimmanding the road. Our regiment is 
placed as a support for the battery and as we line up, 
Forrest passes us on foot going to the front in a half 
bent position. Reaching the trenches he watches the ad- 
vance of the cmemy for a few minutes and then hurries 
to the rear. In a moment we hear the clatter of a horse's 
feet and the "Wizard of the Saddle" dashes by at half 
speed, riding magnificently, his martial figure as straight 
as an arrow and looking six inches taller than his wont, a 



160 UNDER THE STAES ANT) BARS. 

very god of war, yelling as he reaches the waiting ranks : 
"Charge!" "Charge!" "CHARGE!" Over the breast- 
Avorks flashes a line of grey and down the slope they 
sv/eep, yelling at every step. The captain commanding 
(iiir regiment is undecided as to his duty, but finally or- 
ders us to retain our position in the rear ofthe battery. 
Just then Gen. Featherston rides up, "What regiment is 
this?" "63rd Ga." "What are you doing here?" "Sup- 
porting this battery." "Battery the d — 1. Get over them 
brraistworks a^nd get (|uick," and we "get." But the skir- 
mish is soon over. The Yankees have fled, leaving a 
piece of artillery and a number of horses in our posses- 
sion . 

We hold our position until late in the afternoon, when 
"Red" Jackson, with his cavalry, relieves us and we re- 
sume the march. As we are filing off the enemy reap- 
pears and the cavalry carbines are waking the echoes. 
We are directly in the line of lire and the hiss of the min- 
ies does not make pleasa-nt music to march by. But Jack- 
son repels the attack and we have no further trouble with 
cur friends, the enemy. Night combes on and if there wa-s 
ever a darker or more starless one I can not place it. 
Tramping, tramping in the cold and mud and darkness, 
companies and regiments are all commifigled and no 
one knows where he is, or where he ought to be. Too 
dark to see the hie next in front, we walk by faith and 
not by sight. Elmore Dunbar was carrying the colors 
and but for liis occasional whistling imitation of the 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 161 

bii.fr] e (^all in order to let us know "wliere he was at," our 
regiment would liave lost in the darkness all semblance 
of its organization. I can not well conceive how a larger 
share of unadulterated physical comfort could have 
been compressed into the five solid hours for which we 
kept it up. 

At IT p. m'. we are ordered to halt, and camp near 
Sugar Creek. The sound never was more welcome, nor 
fell more sweetly on our ears than on that Christmas 
night. Dinnerless and supperless and completely worn 
out vv^e hailed it with almost rapture for it brought the 
promise of rest and sleep. Of all the Christmas days 
that have come to me in life, only this stands out in 
gloomy prominence as utterly wanting in every element 
of the season's cheer and gladness. Yet looking back- 
ward through the mists of more than thirty years, recall- 
ing all its dangers and discomforts, its toil and wearniess 
and hunger, I would not if I could blot that day's record 
from my memory, for o'er its somber shadows fell and 
falls today the light that comes to every true heart in the 
path of duty; while gilding all its gloom there comes 
across the waste of years a vision of the knightly Forrest^ 
the bravest of the brave, for as he rode the lines that day^ 
the light of battle in his eye and the thunderous 
"Charge!" upon his lips he rode into my heart as well, 
the impersonation of chivalry, and rides there still. 



162 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

CLOSING DAYS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

Early on the morning of the 26th the Federal cavalry 
came within range of our camp during a dense fog. A 
volley scattered them and our cavalry drove them back 
for two miles. 

Holding our position for two hours, and no furth- 
-er advance being made by the enemy, we resumed the 
march, camping at night near Lexington. A march of 12 
m-iles on the 27th brought us to the Tennessee river, 
which had already been crossed by Hood with his army 
and wagon train. During the night, in expectation of an 
attack by the enemy, we were moved into a line Of 
breastworks whicli had been vacated by Loring's divis- 
ion, but we had seen the last of our blue-coated friends 
for that campaign. Crossing the river on the 28th we 
found on its Southern bank and near the end of the pon- 
toon bridge, 10 or 12 dead mules, and among them three 
or four grey specimens of that much abused anim.al. I 
bad heard when a boy that a grey mule never died, that 
t'hey were gifted with a sort of equine immortality. And 
now this dogma of my early days found its complete 
subversion, for these were not only dead, but as Gen. 
Jno. C. Brown said to us in North Carolina afterwards, 
when asked as to President Lincoln's death, they were 
^'very dead." Unable to resist the force of this absolute 
demon.stration of the fact, I have always believed since 
that a grey mule could die, though if further personal 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 163 

evidence were dejnanded I would be unable to produce 
it. 

After crossing the river and without stopping to 
hold apost- mortem examination on these faithful ani- 
mals, who robed iti grey had died in the cause, we se^ out 
to rejoin our divi.^ion at Corinth, Miss. Passing through 
Tuscumbia Bartow and Cherokee, we reached Birns- 
ville, Miss., on the evening of Dec. 3i9t. Here in the 
waning liours of the dying year, after tramping eight 
hundred miles in absolute health I lay -down and had an 
old-fashioned Burke county chill. Lying by a log-heap 
fire through the long watches of the winter night, my 
changes of base in the effort to keep the chilly side of 
my body next to the blazing logs were almost continu- 
ous. My old comrade Joe Warren, whose stalwart frame 
in company with Jim Thomas, Bill Jones and Eph 
Thompson graced the leading "file of fours" in this cam- 
paigji. was wont to say that a certain brand of whiskey 
had "a bad far'well." So the closing year had for the 
writer at least "a bad far'well." The New Year found me 
unable to travel. Lying over until Jan. 2d^ in company 
with several other invalids, I secured a seat on top of a 
dilapidated box car. We had ridden only a mile, when 
the conductor fearing the concern would collapse and 
kill us all, kindly invited us to step down and out. Com- 
plying with some degree of reluctance I shouldered my 
gun and after a tramp of fifteen miles rejoined my com- 
mand at Corinth, Miss., where the shattered remnant of 
Hood's army bad gathered. 



164 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS 

SOME INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
"GO OFF AND WASH YOURSELVES." 

i 

After the death of Gen. W. H. T. Walker, in July, 
'64, onr brigade was assigned to Pat Cleburne's division. 
In his yO'Unger days he had served in the English army 
and had probably imbibed his ideas of militar}^ discipline 
from that service. On Sept. 26, '64, near Jonesboro, Ga., 
the army was reviewed by President Davis and in the 
afternoon of tliat day our regiment w^as ordered to ap- 
pear at Cleburne's headquarters for inspection. The men 
had received no intimation of the order and some of 
the companies were not in a very cleanly condition either 
as to dress or arms. Soap was scarce and but little time 
had been spent on their toilets. The inspection proceded 
without comment from Cleburne until the company com- 
manded by Capt. Joe Polhill of Louisville, Ga., was 
reached. Cleburne looked over the ranks with his keen 
Irish eyes as Capt. Dixon inspected the arms, and then 
in a tone indicating some degree of disgust, said, "At- 
tention company! Shoulder arms. Close order, march. 
Right face. Forward by file right — march. Go ofif and 
wash yourselves," and the regiment was ordered back 
to its quarters. Will Daniel, jealous of the reputation at 
the Oglethorpes, who had not been inspected, addressed 
a note to Gen. Cleburne protesting against the implied 
reflection on his company, to which the General replied 
that no reflection was intended where no inspection was 
made. In justice to Capt. Polhill and his company it is 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 165 

only proper to say that at a subsequent inspection next 
day they redeemed their reputation. 

PARTING WITH HARDEE. 

On the displacement of Gen. Johnston in July^ 64, 
Gen. Hairdee, as the ranking lieutenant general in the 
Army of Tennessee, felt aggrieved at the promotion of 
Gen. Hood above him, but was too patriotic to ask for 
an assignment to other fields while his lineis were fac'ng 
the enemy. At the close of the campaign he did prefer 
this request and on Sept. 28 took leave of his old corps. 
Many of them had followed him fromi Shiloh to Jones- 
boro. His almost unbroken success as brigade, division 
and corps commander had given him the title of the 
"Old Reliable." Even at Missionary Ridge his corps 
held its line and on a portion of it, at the suggestion of 
Gen. Alfred Gumming, made a counter charge, driving 
the enemy from their front. At Ringgold Gap and in 
every assault upon his lines during the Dalton and At- 
lanta Campaign Hardee had repulsed the attacking col- 
umn, with the single exception of Jonesboro, where ten 
lines of battle had been massed against Govan's thinly 
manned trenches. For these reasons his old corps was 
loth to give him up. On the evening before his depar- 
ture large numbers of his commiand went over to bid 
him good-bye. In a siir^ple and touching address he ex- 
pressed his deep regret at parting from those with whom 
he had been associated so long, but said that he would 



166 UNDER THE STARS AND BAliS. 

be with them in spirit if not in person and hoped they 
would always sustain the reputation they had so gallant- 
ly won. "1 leave you," said he, ''but I leave you in good 
liands, Frank Cheatham's. Frank and Pat go w.ell to- 
gether. If Frank fails you, you have Pat tO' fall back 
upon." Just then a soldier, who had climbed a tree and 
was sitting on a limb 20 feet from the ground, sang out, 
"Yes, General, and Crazy Bill ain't far ofif," alluding to 
Gen. Bate. The scene was a very affecting one and after 
speeches by Gen Gist and Gen. Capers of So. Ca., closed 
with appropriate music rendered by the band. 

GEN. BATE AS A POET AND WIT. 
The allusion to Gen. Bate in the preceding incident 
recalls an address made by him Oct. 21, '64, at Gadsden, 
Ala., where we had halted for a day on our trip to Nash- 
ville. On the evening of that day the officers were sere- 
naded by the army bands and responses were made by 
Beauregard, Cleburne, Clayton and Baite. The last spark- 
led with eloquence and wit and was the gem of the even- 
ing. Gov. Brown of Georgia, had issued an order exemp- 
ing a goodly number of citizens of conscript age in each 
county from military service for the purpose of raising 
provisions for the army, sorglium being named as one 
of the products to be so used. This order had created ai 
feeling of resentment in the minds of those at the front 
and Gen. Bate, in voicing this, sentiment, and in criti- 
cism of Gov. Brown's action, impromptued the following 
•parody on Campbell's downfall of Poland: 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 167 

''What tho' destruction sweep these lovely plains, 
Wlio cares for liberty while sorghum yet remains? 
With that sweet name we wave our knives on high, 
And swear to cut it while we live and suck it till we die." 

Cen. Bale's bravery as an officer equalled his wit as 
a speaker, but his division had been unfortunate in sev- 
eral engaL,cments and other troops were disposed to guy 
It, saluting it cis it passed them with, "Lie down Bate, we 
are gwine to bust a cap" or scorch a feather," and such 
like sallies of so-called wit. Our regiment had indulged 
in this pastime to some extent and this fact seems to 
have come to the knowledge of the General. At the bat- 
tle of Benionvilie in March, '65, we were assigned to 
Bates' corps. In the early morning an assault was mede 
on Govan's brigade, on our immediate left, and as we 
were without breastworks we were ordered to lie down. 
As we had not been on the firing line for some time and 
the whistle of the minies had grown a little unfamiliar, 
we obeyed the order very promptly, lying as flat as pos- 
sible without nnbedding ourselves in the ground, and in 
in the case of Frank v^tone and the writer this was pret- 
tv flat. Gen. Bate rode up to our line and asked, ''What 
command is this?" "63rd Ga.," was the reply. ''Why, 
boys, you lie mighty close. I cam^e very near riding over 
you without seeing yo.i. Never tell Bate to lie down any 
more," and we c.idn't. 



168 UNDER THE STARS AISTD BARS. 

PAT CLEBURNE AS AN ORATOR. 

Gen. Cleburne was a better tighter than speaker, and 
yet his oratory was sometimes very effective. Of his ad- 
dress on the occasion above referred to I recall but a 
single sentiment uttered by him. After referring to the 
outrages committed by Northern troops on Southern soil 
he said, 'T am not fighting for right, I am fighting for 
vengeance." Of another address delivered by him on 
the same day I retain a more vivid recollection. Two 
soldiers of our brigade had appropriated a hog belong- 
ing to some citizen living near Gadsden, and fhe maitter 
was reported to Gen , Cleburne. The brigade was order- 
ed out and formed into a hollow square facing inwards. 
The two culprits were brought in under guard and 
piaced in the center of the square and then Cleburne and 
his staff rode in. With the culprits before him and in 
the presence and hearing of the entire brigade he for 
fifteen minutes al'Used and bemeaned and shamed them 
until I think thoy v^cre thoroughly reformed on that par- 
ticular line ot iiiorai depravity. On the march, some days 
later, ibe road '^ were traveling changed direction 
abrupt]} to the right. A corn field lay on that side and 
a numi^cr of the beys, with the view of shortening their 
tramp that day, leaped the tence and took the hypothen- 
use of the triangle rather than v/alk the longer distance 
represented by the other two sides. Gen Cleburne, who 
was riding at the head of the division, probably suspect- 
ed such a result and. when he had reached the corner of 



XASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 169 

the fieUl vvluu' iliey would come out he stJ^-ipcd his horse 
and quietly awaited their coming. As they reached the 
road, sing-ly or in pairs, the General gave them a brief 
but pointed lecture on the sin of straggling, and to im- 
press it more forcibly on their memories he told them 
in his suave Irish way that they could each take a rail 
from the fence and carry it on their shoulders for the 
next half mile. It was a new, but not a pleasant form of 
traveling by rail. If my memory is not at fault one of the 
Oglethorpes had the honor of membership in the rail 
squad that day, and probably *has still a feeling recollec- 
tion of the incident. He was something of a vocalist in 
those days and was wont to enliven the march with the 
tender strains of "Faded Flowers," "The Midnight 
Train," "Benny Havens Ho," and other popular musi- 
cal selections, but on that day his lyre was voiceless and 
all its music hushed. 

HOOD'S STRATEGY. 

This incident has no reference to Gen. John B. Hood, 
whose strategy in this campaign was apparently con- 
spicuous only by its absence. It refers only to Private 
Hood of the Oglethorpes, who joined our ranks in '63 
or '64, probably at Thunderbolt. As I recall his personal- 
ity, he was an undergrown youth of sallow complexion 
and. uncertain age. On our march to Nashville he grew 
sick or tired, and stopped at the home of a citizen to re- 
cuperate. Some days later a squad of Yankee soldiers 



170 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

stopped ait the house, and Hood, deeming prudence the 
better part of valor, dropped his grey uniform and don- 
ning a suit belonging to the son of his host, passed him- 
self off as a member of the family. While chatting with 
the visitors one O'f them- said to him, "Well, Bud, haven't 
they got you in the army yet?" "No, sir," said Hood, 
'and they ain't agoing to either." "That's right, my boy," 
and with Hood's assurance that he had no idea of "jin- 
ing," they bade him good-bye and went their way. Some 
weeks later he rejoined us, congratulating himself on the 
success of his strategy. 

A LUCKY FIND. 

Wiile ferrying the army train across the Tennessee 
river, the flat in charge of Sergeant S. C. Foreman of the 
Oglethorpes, brought in a box or case containing three 
hundred pounds of nice drv^ salted bacon. It was reported 
to me that they had found it floating down the river and 
supposed it had been thrown in by the Federal garrison 
at Florence to prevent its capture by Hood's airniy. I 
swallowed the story and some of the meat and had no 
occasion to question the correctness of the information 
until Sam Woods told me in '98 that he found it lying m 
shallow water near the river bank, and George Mc- 
Laughlin afterwards intimated thait it was stolen from 
the wagon train. Whatever may have been the method 
by which it came into our possession I remember that it 
was divided among the members of the company as ex- 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 171 

tra rations. I recall the further fact that my mess secured 
thait afternoon a large wash pot and a supply of corn 
and boiled up a peck or two of "lye hominy." On the 
next day we began our march to rejoin the army and 
for 17 miles, in addition to my gun, bayonet, cartridge 
box and forty rounds of cartridges, heavy blanket, tent 
fly and haversack with two day's rations, I carried 6 or 
or Spounds of this bacon and a bucket of the hominy. 
The aggregate weight must have been 50 or 60 pounds, 
a pretty fair load for a "light weight." 

"WHO ATE THE DOG." 

This inquiry, while not invested with the sam'e degree 
of mystery, nor enjoying as large a measure of noto- 
riety as "Who struck Billy Patterson?" nevertheless 
ethoed on many a hillside amd enlivened many a camp 
fire on our trip to Nashville. The incident which gave 
rise to it occurred soon after we left the Tennessee river 
on this ill-fated r.ramp. To prevent depredations upon 
the property of citizens along the route of our march, a 
provost guard had been formed, in command o'f which 
was placed an ofrlcer now living not a thousand miles 
from Augusta, but who shall be nameless here, partly 
out of respect to his feelings and partly out of regard for 
my own. He has warned me that a different course would 
be followed by an aggravated case of assault and bat- 
tery and I do not care to put the courts to unnecessary 
expense. 



172 UNDER THE STAliS AND BARS. 

Stringent orders were issued by Gen. Smith to arrest 
any man found in possession of fresh m^eat, for which he 
could give no satisfactory account. Several arrests had 
been made and the captured meat had been confiscated 
and appropriated by the provost guard to their own use, 
benefit and behoof. To the men enga^ged in these depre- 
dations, justified in their eyes by the shortness of their 
rations, these captures became a little monotonous and 
they determined to find some means of retaliation. One 
day a soldier was seen tramping through the woods with 
a suspicious looking sack swinging from his shoulder 
and one of the guard ordered him to halt. Instead of 
obeying the command he gave leg bail and the guard 
started in pursLiii. 

The forager encumbered with the weight of 
his plunder finally dropped it and made his escape. The 
sack was found to contain, apparently, a leg of mutton 
nicely dressed, which was turned over to the officer in 
command. 

In view O'f this tempting addition to the bill of fare, a 
brother officer, who has sinlce turned his sword into a 
spatula and is as well versed now in drugs as he w-as then 
in tactics, w^s an invited guest at the midday meal that 
day. Ample justice was done to the menu by all con- 
cerned and all went merry as a marriage bell until the 
command had halted for the night and the men, wearied 
by the day's march, were resting aro'und their camp fires. 
And then a change came o'er the spirit of their dream. 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 173 

PYoni one end of the camp, up through the stiUness of 
the evening air, '^here rose a cry, that hke of noise oi 
many waters, rang and reverberated to its farthest 
bounds, "Who ate t'he dog?" And as its echoes died 
away, from- another camp fire in the same stentorian 

tones there came the answer, "Lieut ," naming 

the officer of the provost guard. And on through the 
entire evening, at brief intervals and without the stimu- 
lus of an encore the program was repeated. And now as 
there flitteci across the mental vision of the officer afore- 
saiid the memory of the mutton chops that had seemed so 
savory and toothsome, there came to him a dim sus- 
picion that he had been the victim of misplaced confi- 
dence. Was it mutton or was it dog? As he debated the 
question pro and con, he was forced to admit with 
Shakespeare that "all that glitters is not gold," and with 
Longfellow, that "things are not what they seem," and 
with Whitticr that — 

''Of all sad thoughts of tongue or pen, 

The saddest are these, it might have been" — a dog. 

And now if the spirit of Poe will pardon me, 

All this dark and dread suspicion 
Of such canine deglutition, 
As it crossed his mental vision 
Leading not to height elysian. 
Made him sad and made him sadder. 
Made him mad and made him madder, 
And his soul from out its shadow 
Shall be lifted, nevermore. 



174 UNDER THE STAES AND BARS. 

For weeks and months, and indeed until the war clos- 
ed, this canine ghost would never down. He was not al- 
lowed to forget it. He was taunted and barked at and 
dog-ged so constantly that no Lethean waters could wash 
out the maddening- memory. And the bitterness of it all 
was that the perpetrators of the joke would give no in- 
timation as to the special breed that graced his table that 
winter day, whether 

■'Mongrel, puppy, whelp or hound 
Or cur of low degree." 

The size of the ham precluded the possibility of its 
halving been a bench-legged fice, but there was the tor- 
turing reflection that it might have been what Mark 
Twain has termed the Ishmael of his race, the ''yaller 
dog,'' who if Mark is to be credited, has been ''cursed in 
all his generations aind relations in his kindred by con- 
sanguinity and affinity and in his heirs and assigns — 
cursed with endless hunger with perpeftual fear with 
perennial laziness with hopeless mange, with incessant 
flea's and with iiis tail between his legs." 

These unpleasant reflections were, however, not con- 
fined to the officer in command of the provost guard. A 
pairt of the meat had been sent to brigade headquarters 
and it was said that an aide on the general's staflf, \Vho 
had eaten very freely of the dish, suffered on learning of 
its origin so serious a gastric disturbance that he vom- 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 175 

ited, as a colored brodier once put it, from Genesis to 
Revelations. 

"I knoAv not how the truth may be, 
I tell the tale afi 'twas told to me." 

Regretting my mability, for reasons already stated, to 

answer this inquiry more definitely, I can only say in 

conclusion as I heard Bob Toombs once say in another 

connection, "In spite of compromises, concessions and 
constitutions this question still m^arches onward for its 

solution." who ate the dog? 

WHERE IS THE OVEN? 

Army life is not specially conducive to personad clean- 
liness, nor to a high regard for the minor proprieties of 
life. A young lady visiting Camp McKenzie, near Augus- 
ta, Ga., during the Spa)nish-American war, was shocked 
by seeing a soldier drop a piece of bread upon the 
ground and after picking it up resume its mastication. 
If this sketch should meet her eye, that feeling will 
probably be reawakened and intensified: 

During the later years of the Confederate war wash 
basins in camp were an unknown quantity. The morn- 
ing ablution, if performed at all, was managed by pour- 
ing water on the hands from a canteen. Lieut. Blanchard, 
I remember, always held his hands in cup shape until 
they were filled and then dropped one, spilling all the 
liquid and washing his face with the moistened pahn of 
the other. In the bitter cold and constant marching of 



176 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

the Nashville campaign I am satisfied that some of the 
boys did not wash their faces nor comb their hair at less 
than weekly intervals. As evidence of the infrequency of 
'•'bath tnb nights" for reasons stated, I recall the fact 
that I lost a calico handkerchief and thought I had drop- 
ped it on the march. Some weeks afterwards in remov- 
ing my outer clothing for the first time after its disap- 
pearance, I found it hidden away underneadi the back of 
my vest. On our return to Corinth, Miss., my mess took 
their underclothing to a lady to be washed and as they 
had been wearing it a month or more without change, 
they apologized for its condition. No apology is neces- 
seray," she said, **I have washed so'me for Forrest's cav- 
alry that was so stiffened with dirt that they were able to 
stand alone." 

How we managed to keep our pedal extremities in a 
cleanly condition I do not recall save in a single instance 
and this, it is perhaps not amiss to say, was an excep- 
tional case and no^t a company custom. A m^ember of 
the Oglethorpes one day began his preparations for the 
midday meal. One of the cooking utensils was missing 
and he sang out, "Where is the oven?" A messmate 
some distance away shouted back, ''Can't you wait tii 
I finish washing my feet in it?" I am not prepared to tes- 
tify as to the fiavor of the bread that day as fortunately, 
I was not a member of that particular mess. 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 177 

AMENDE HONORABLE. 

Tt has been my purpose in these re- 
corfls to present the truth, fhe whole truth 
and nothing- but the truth. It has not been 
my purpose to do any wrong, express or impled, 
to an)^ member of either of the human or the canine 
race. In justice therefore to the truth of history and to the 
"yaller dog" as well, it is perhaps proper to say that since 
penning the preceding *'dog" sketch, a,n old comrade 
has informed me that the "mutton (?) ham" to which 
allusion was made in that sketch, had its origin in the 
anatomy of a "brindle" dog and not of one, who as 
Mark Twain says, ''slinks through life in a diagonal dog 
trot as if in doubt which end is entitled to the prece- 
dence." My comrade claims to speak from personal 
knowledge and not from hearsay testimony, and as his 
statement has not been induced by the fear of punish- 
nient or the hope of reward, its credibility can not be 
impeached. He says that the dog in question had grown 
old in the service of his master and on account of age 
and meritorious service had been placed on the retired 
list with full pay as to rations, personal care, etc.; that 
in the enjoyment of the otium cum dignitate attendant 
upon these conditions he had grown "fat" if not fair and 
forty"; that in an evil hour he was enticed away from 
the retirement of nis home and with malice aforethought 
slaughtered in cold blood while his juicy hams were 
nicely dressed to tickle the palates of the provost guard. 



175 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

As the yallcr dog- has already had assigned to him a;> 
many of the ills chs-t flesh is heir to as he can reasonably 
bear, it gives me pleasure to make this amende honor- 
able and to relieve him in this special instance of any 
^of the "wliite man's burden" even aJs an involuntary par- 
"ticeps criminis in the transaction under consideration. 
Before giving final dismissal to the subject it may not 
-be amiss to say fo;r the ijeneiit of the hospitable host and 
the appreciative guest at thait midday meal that if, as 
physiologists contend, every atom of our physical or- 
ganism undergoes a complete metamorphosis in every 
seven years of our existence, it should comfort them to 
know that 28 years and seven months ago by exact cal- 
rnla'tion, the last lingering trace of canine flavor in their 
muscles, bones and blood and epidermis likewise had 
Gone glimmering through the dream 
Of things that were, a schoolboy's tale, 
The wonder O'f an hour. 

COURAGE SUBLIME. 

In concluding these reminiscences of the Nashville 
campaign, a campaign so fraaight with disaster to our 
x^ause, I am glad to throw over them ait their close the 
glamour of an incident that in its display of infinite cour- 
age gilds with its glory even the gloom of defeat. In a 
subsequent sketch 1 shall have occasion to pay some 
tribute to the conspicuous gallantry of the co'lor-bearer 
of the First Florida regiment in our last charge at Ben- 
.tonville. Under the inspiration of the ''Rebel Yell" and 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 179 

the contagious enthusiasm and excitement of a charg-e 
men may have made reputations for courage they would 
no't sustain when subjected to the test of "simply stand- 
ing and dying at ease." This man, however, George Reg- 
ister by name, was tried in both furnaces and came out 
pure gold. 

The incident referred to occurred at the battle of 
Franklin, Nov. 30, '64. The failure of a staff officer to 
promptly deliver Hood's order to Cheatham at Spring 
Hill had allowed Sc'hofield to escape when the interposi- 
tion o<f a single division across his front would have re- 
sulted in the capiture of his army and would have ensur- 
ed the success of the campaign. And now the Federal 
army lay at Franklin heavily entrenched while Hood, 
fretting over the blunder, determined to retrieve it by 
an assault upon their works. Forrest protested that it 
w^ould be a useless sacrifice of life, would probably end m 
failure and offered to flank Schofield out of his position 
in two hours if furnished a single division of infantry to 
co-operate with his cavalry. Flood could not be argued 
out of his purpose to fight and ordered his army into 
line. Cleburne rode down his lines as his division filed 
into position and jiassing an old friend, a captain in the 
lanks, he noticed that he v/as barefooted and that his feet 
were bleedmg. StoiDping and dismounting he asked the 
captain to pull off his boots and then requested him to 
try them on his own feet. In reply to the captain's pro- 
test he said. 'T am tired wearing boots and can do with- 



180 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

out them," and tlien he rode away to lead his last charge. 
Gen. Granbury, commanding a Texas brigade in Cle- 
burne's division, rode out in front of his men and said, 
"Boys, two hours work this evening will shorten the 
war two years." Two hours later, on that short No- 
vember afternoon, the very flower of ITood's army lay 
dead or dying in front of the Federal breastworks. 
Among them lay Cleburne, Granbury, Adams, Gist, 
Strahl and Carter, six general offices, a. larger number 
than fell in three day's fighting at Gettysburg, or any 
battle field in the four years' struggle. 

Under the murderous leaden hail that swept the open 
field over which they passed, the First Florida Regi- 
ment was ordered to lie down to secure some immunity 
from the fire that was rapidly thinning their ranks. The 
entire regiment sank to the ground, save one of Lheir 
number. The color-bearer, unwilling to lower his flag, 
yet willing to sliow his foe how a brave man could die, 
refused to avail himself of the partial protection which 
a change in position would bring, and standing erect, 
calmly faced the storm of shot and shell; faced it unmov- 
ed, while seven of the eight color guards lying at his 
feet were killed or wounded; faced it unflnchingly while 
the staff he held in his brave right hand was three times 
shattered by hostile shot ; faced it without a tremor while 
the folds of his tattered flag were thirty times rent and 
torn by hissing minies or shrieking shell; faced it calmly 
until the blessedness of nig^ht had come to end the car- 



NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 181 

nival of death, and stood there at its close the very incar- 
nation of courage and yet without the smell of fire on 
his garments or the mark of shot or shell on his grey- 
clad form. 

I know not whether he still survives. I know not 
Avhether his radiant deed has found a fitting recognition 
save in the memory of surviving comrades. But living 
or dead, famous or forgotten, my hat goes off to you 
today, George Register, in loving admiration of a 
heroism that in soldierly devotion to the colors that you 
bore, crowns you an im'mortal and rises to the region 
of the morallv sublime. 



CHAPTER Vll. 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 

A weeks' stay in the vicinity of Corinth, Miss., and or- 
'lers were received for the transfer of Stewart's and 
Cheatham's corps to the East to aid Hardee in an effort 
to prevent a junction of the armies of Grant and Sher- 
man. 

AN ARCTIC RIDE. 

Transportation by rail was furnished only to the sick 
and barefooted, who were ordered to report at Corinth 
at dayhght, Jan. lot'h. Weakened by an attack of chill 
and fever I joined the sick squad, which left campt at i 
a. m., tramped through the mud and rain^ waded several 
streams and reached Corinth in the early morning with 
our clothing wet to our knees. In this condition, with no 
opportunity to dry our drenched garments, we rode in a 
box car without lire on a cold winter day from 8 a. m. 
until 3 p. m. The car was crowded and the heating ar- 
rangements were confined to such exercise as we could 
take in the limited space we were forced to occupy. I had 
never been taught to ''trip the light fantastic toe" and 
the figures I cut that day were more continuous than 
graceful. At 3 p. m. I told the Oglethorpes. who were 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 183 

with me, John Kirkpatrick and Will Dabney among 
them', I remember, that while I was willing to die in a 
soldierly way in battle, I did not propose to freeze to 
deaith, and suggested that in order to secure an oppor- 
tunity to thaw, wo ?top at the next station, which chanc- 
ed to be Baldwin, Miss. The motion was carried unani- 
mously, though not by a rising vote, as we already oc- 
cupied from necessity a standing position, our car hav- 
ing no furniture except a floor and a door. To> give the 
reader sonie gauge of the condition of the railroads in 
that section at that stage of the war, it is only necessary 
to say that we had traveled only 31 miles in 7 hours- 
We VN^ere kindly received by a Mr. Kent, an old citizen 
of Baldwin, who regretted his inability to furnish us any- 
thing but shelter and fire, as he had been foraged upon 
by Yankees and Confederates alike until there was very 
little meal in the barrel or oil in the cruse and ''no proph- 
et in all the land to bless the scanty store." When the 
evening meal was ready, however, he came to our room 
and with an apology to my comrades for failing to in- 
clude them in the invitation, he pressed the writer to 
share his humble fare. Whether f his discrimination in my 
favor was due to my good looks, my winning ways or 
the appearance of chronic hunger in my face, has re- 
mained to this day an unsolved problem. And yet what- 
ever may have been the right solution, it gives me pleas- 
ure through this humble record to waft back over the 
waste of years my earnest appreciation of his kindness 
to a sick and underfed Confederate. 



184 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

CLEANED UP EINANCLALLY. 

No train passed next morning and we tramped down 
the railroad for 12 miles, stopping at Saltillo for the 
night. None of us were well, the weather was cold and 
to avoid sleeping on the damp, baire ground we began 
to reconnoiter for better lodging. By reason possibly of 
the favorable impression made by the writer on our host 
at Baldwin, I was made spokesman for the occasion. 
Knocking at the residence of a Mrs. B. I stated our con- 
dition in as impressive language as I could command 
and emphasized our desire to avoid the exposure of 
sleeping on the cold, damp ground. To this she replied 
that she was a widow, living there alone, that she knew 
nothing of us, and that while she disliked to turn off Con- 
federate soldiers, she could not feel that it would be 
proper or prudent for her to entertain a company of ut- 
ter strangers. "Well, madame," I replied, *T appreciate 
your position and if you feel the slightest hesitancy, we 
will not insist." *'Walk in sir," she replied. ''You can 
stay." She told me afterwards that if I had pressed my 
appeal she would have turned us away, but that my fail- 
ure to do so convinced her that we were gentlemen. It 
may be as well to confess that I had anticipated such an 
objection and had framed my reply to meet it. 

During the evening she told us with quivering lips, oi 
the death of her solder boy in Virginia, of her sad mis- 
sion in visiting the battle field to recover his body and 
lay it away in the old family burying ground, and spoke 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 185 

so feelingly O'f her attachment to our cause that on re- 
tiring to our room I remem^ber that we entertained some 
fears that an ofler of compensation for our entertainment 
might oflend her. The sum total of our financial assets, 
as I recollect it, was a $20 Confederate bill owned by 
Will Dabney. On taking our leave next morning we ten- 
dered it in payment of our bill, thinking, of course, that 
she would decline it with thanks, but we had reckoned 
without our host or at least without our hostess. She 
accepted it with the remark that it would exactly square 
the account, and we were turned out on the cold charity 
of the world without a cent. 

Twas the last o<f our assets. 
Gone glimmering alone. 
All its blue-backed compatiicms 
Were wasted and gone. 
No bill of its kindred 
Nor greenback was night, 
Not even a "shinplaster" 
To spend for pie. 

In justice to our kind-hearted hostess, and lest some 
reader should imagine that her charges were really ex- 
travagant, it is proper to say that she had given live 
hungry soldiers a sumptuous supper and breakfast, had 
lodged us on snowy feather beds aind had accepted in 
payment what was equivalent to one dollar or less in 
good money. If the condition of our finances needs any 



186 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

explanation it m-ay be found in the fact that our last pay 
day had occurred just 12 months and ten days before. 
****** 

But I am spinning out these little incidents at too 
great length. Resuming our march we were overtaken 
by our command and tramped with it to Tupelo, where 
we remained 12 days. On January 25th we boarded the 
cars for Meridian, but the train was overloaded and we 
traveled only 18 miles in 12 hours, not very rapid transit. 
In order to lighten the load two cars were detached and 
in O'ue of them Lieut. Goetchius and ten of the Ogle- 
thors, including the writer chanced to be passengers. 
After two days' tramp through the "Prairie Lands" of 
Mississippi, our squad secured transportation, rejoining 
our command at Meridian, Jan, 29. Thence by rail to 
McDowell's Landing, by boat to Demopolis, by rail to 
Selnia and by boat to Montgomery, reaching that place 
I p. m., Feb. ist. The preceding night was a very cold 
one and as we were deck passengers and no heating 
arrangements had been provided, a fire was built of fat 
pine on a pile of railroad iron . Frank Lamar, I remem- 
ber, sat on the leeward side of the fire with the black 
smoke pouring into his face all night, a'nd next day 
co-uld have played the role of negro minstrel without the 
use of burnt cork. The writer kept his temperature above 
the freezing point by volunteering as an aid to the fire- 
man in the engine room. 

Leaving Montgomery Feb. 2d, we reached Columbus, 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 18T 

Ga., late in the afternoon and on our arrival were met 
by a delegalion oi lau'ies, who greeted us with a speech, 
a song and a supper. My journal, I regret to say, records 
the fact that the supper was last but not least in the de- 
gree of appreciation meted out to the trio by the boys. 
Passing through Macon Feb. 3d, we arrived at Midway 
at 2 a. m. of the 4th and remained there a cay drawing 
clothing and blankets. Leaving the railroad we marched 
through Milledgeville on the 5th, but did not stop to in- 
vestigate the condition of Gov. Brown's ''collard paitch." 
Reaching Mayfield on the 7th we boarded the cars again, 
lay over at Camak and arrived at Augusta on the even- 
ing of the 8th, the brigade going into camp near Ham- 
burg and the Oglethorpes remaining with friends and 
relatives in the city. 

A SAD HOME-COMING. 

Sixteen miles away, embowered in a grove of oak and 
elm, lay the home I had left, 'holding within the sacred 
shadow of its wails all that I loved best on earth. For 
nearly tVvO months no tidings had come to me from 
them. We had been so constantly on the move that the 
letters written had never reached me. The latest mes- 
sage received had told me of my father's illness, but its 
tone gave me hope of his early recovery. Our passage 
through Augusta gave m-e'the privilege of revisiting the 
old homestead, but it was ai sad home-coming. Twice 
since I had left it last the family circle had been brjkea 



188 UNDER THE STARS AND BAES. 

and the shadow oi death had fallen on its hearthstone. 
A few short months before in the autumnal haze of a 
September day, as sweet a sister as brother ever owned 
had breathed out her young life just as she was budding 
into womanhood. And now only a week before I entered 
its portals again my father, worn out by the added bur- 
dens imposed by the absorption of younger physicians 
in the military service, had been laid away beneath the 
shadow of the trees in the city of the dead. The reader 
will pardon, I trust, the filial tribute to his worth that 
comes unbidden from my heart today. Beyond and above 
any partial judgment born of the love I bore him, I have 
always thought him the best and purest man I have ever 
known. It may be that no human life can claim perfec- 
tion and yet if his knew aught of fault or blemish in all 
the years from boyhood to the grave, no human eye 
could see it. In lofty purpo.se and in lowly, unremitting 
faithfulness to duty he lived above the common plane of 
men, serving his generation by the will of God, doing 
justly, loving mercy, walking humbly in all the paths his 
Master's feet had trod and dying in the noontide of his 
usefulness, he left to those who loved him, a name as 
pure and stainless as the snows that winter's breath have 
heaped upon his grave. 

****** 
After ten days' rest at home, in company with eig'ht 
comrades of the Oglethorpes, I left Augusta Feb. 20 to 
i^ejoin my command in upper South Carolina, reaching 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 18^ 

it after six days' tramp, near Pomaria. I recall only two 
or three incidents of that trip, that are seemingly worthy 
of record in these pages. The night of Feb. 21 was spent 
near the residence of Mr. Johnson Bland, who kindly 
sent to our bivouac an ample supply of edibles for our 
evening meal. After they had been disposed of, the ne- 
gro messenger, who 'had broug'ht the supplies, entertain- 
ed us with a learned disquisition on a species of ghosts, 
which he termed "hanks." Harrison Foster, with his 
usual taste for scientilic research, wanted to know how 
the presence of these hanks could be detected and was 
informed that if in traveling at night he felt the sudden 
touch of a warm breath of air on his face he might rest 
assured that it Vv^as a "hank." Possibly to test the sin- 
cerity of his conviction on the subject ©r to guard our 
slumbers from the disturbing influence of an inroad of 
these restless spirits of the night, Harrison gave the 
negro a gun and posted him as a lone sentry in an adja- 
cent graveyard. 

The next night was spent at the residence of Major 
Dearing. The family were all away and Mr. Smith, who 
had charge of the plantation, kindly gave us the use of 
the dwelling for the night. It was very handsomely fur- 
nished and to the credit of our squad I desire to record 
the fact that while silver forks and spoons were lying 
loosely around the dining room, not one of them dis- 
appeared when we took our departure. There were no 
Ben Butlers among us. Two nig-hts later we slept in a 



190 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

Universalist church, said to be haunted, not by ''hanks," 
but by the ghost of its former pastor, Mr. Stitch. My 
journal records the further fact that on the evening be- 
fore we rejoined our command the entire squad suffered 
from an aggravated attack of the "bhies " In whatever 
way the fact may be accoimted for, there is but one oth- 
er s/imilar entry for the four years' service. An hour or 
two after reaching the camp of our regiment we began 
the march for Chester, reaching that place March 5th . 
Remiaining there until the loth we left by rail for Char- 
lotte, but by reason of an accident, failed to arrive at our 
destination until the evening O'f the nth. On the 12th 
we moved on to Salisbury, remained there until the 17th, 
when the train took us to Smithfield. A march of 16 
miles on the i8th enabled us to rejoin our corps near 
Bentonville. 

OUR LAST BATTLE. 

During the Confederate Reunion in Atlanta, G.^., in 
"98, a man with kindly eyes and grizzled beard approach- 
ed me with extended hand amd said, "Do you know me?'' 
His face seemed familiar, but I was forced to confess 
that I could not exactly place him. "Do you know where 
I saw you last?" I was compelled to admit that I was 
still in the dark as to his identity. "Well," said he, "it 
was behind the biggest kind of a pine." "Now I know 
you, Sam Woods," said L That pine supplied the miss- 
ing link in m\' memory and furnished likewise a link in 
the present sketch. 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 191 

Our inncli(;r) wirli liaMce's force had placed us as^aiii 
under Joe Johnston — ^tlie same Joe whose displacement 
at Atlanta had perhaps as much to do with the collapse 
of the Confederacy as the failure of Pickett's charge at 
Gettysbur<^. the Joe of whom Bill Arp said he would 
Walk ten miles on a rainy night to look into his hazel 
eyes and feel the grip of his soldier hand — the Joe of 
whom Capt. Picquet said, as he rode by us on his met- 
tled bay at the battle of Resaca, "Boys, I always feel 
safer when that man is around" — the same Joe who, 
when asked by Col. Geo. A. Gordon at Dalton how he 
managed to manoeuver an army in the woods in battle, 
replied, "Well, Colonel, I have to depend largely on my 
corps commanders; they rely on the Major Generals, 
who in turn depend on the brigadiers, the brigadiers on 
the Colonels, the Colonels on the Captains, but," said 
he, "thank God, we all have to rely on the private at 
last." 

By 10 a. m., March 19th, the day after our arrival at 
Bentonville, we were in line of battle, fronting a large 
part of vShcrman's army. Our regiment depleted by sick- 
ness and death and capture and possibly "French leave" 
as we came through Georgia, had only a hundred men 
in its ranks — ^^the Oglethorpes only nineteen. We hsd no 
field of^cer and, as I rem'cmber, only one captain, one 
lieutenant and an orderly sergeant for the ten companies. 
At one stage in the fight that followed the orderly ser- 
geant was the ranking officer in the regiment. 



192 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

Soon after taking our position, near the extreme right 
of the line, an assault was made by the enemy and was 
repulsed. About midday Gen. Bate, commanding our 
corps, gave the order to advance. In our front and gently 
sloping upwa^rds for three hundred yards was an old field 
dotted with second growth pines, and two hundred and 
fifty yards beyond its hig^hest point on the descending 
slope lay the Federal breastworks awaiting us Closing 
in to the left as we advanced, we passed over the bodies 
of the enemy who had been killed in the assault and 
whose faces, from exposure to the sun, had turned al- 
most black. Reaching the top of the slope we came in 
view of the Federal line and if our eyes had been closed 
our ears would have given us ample evidence of the 
fact. The rattle of the Enfields and the hiss of the minies 
marked the renewal of our acquaintance with our old 
antagonists of the Dalton and Atlanta campaign. Down 
the slope we charged until half the distance had been 
covered and the enemy's line is only a hundred yards 
away. The ''zips" of the minies get thicker and thicker 
and the Ime partially demoralized by the heavy fire sud- 
denly halts. Frank Stone is carrying the colors (Cle- 
burne's division flag— a blue field with white circle in the 
center) and he aind I jump for the same pine. It is only 
six inches thick and will cover neither of us fully, but we 
divide its protective ca'pacity fairly. Fifteen or twentv 
feet to my left there is an exclamation of pain and as I 
turn to look jim P.easley clasps his hand to his face as 
the blood spurts from his cheek. 



THE CLOvSING CAMPAIGN. 193 

My cartridge box has been drawn to the front of my 
hoidy for convenience in loading as well as for protection 
and as T look to the front again a ball strikes it, and 
strikes so hard that it forces from me an involuntary 
grunt. Frank hears it and turns to me quickly, "Are ycru 
hurt?" I said I believed not and proceed to investigate. 
^^le ball passing through the leather and tin had struck 
the leaden end of a cartridge and being in that way de- 
flected had passed out the right side of the box instead 
of through my body. Thirty or forty feet to the right the 
gallant color-bearer of the First Florida, whose heroism 
at Franklin has already received notice in these records, 
is making his way alone towards the breastworks at half 
speed, with his flag held aloft, fifty yards in front of the 
halted ranks. Inspired by his example or recovering from 
tlie temporary panic, the line moves forward again, and 
the enemy desert their breastworks and make for the 
rear at a double-quick. Leaping the entrenchments, a 
hatchet, frying pan and Enfield rifie lie right in my path. 
Sticking the pan and hatchet in my belt, I drop my Aus- 
trian gun and sci:^ing the Enfield I see across the ravine 
a group of the enemy running up the hill. Aiming at the 
center of the squad I send one of their own balls after 
them, but the cartridge is faulty and fails to reach its 
mark. We pursue them for half a mile and the disordered 
ranks are halted to be re-formed. Capt Hanley, formerly 
of Cleburne's staff, calls for volunteer skirmishers and 
Jnhn Kirkpatrick is first to respond. Turning to me he 



194 UXDEPv THE STARS AND BARS 

says, "Come on Walter." The writer is not advertising 
for that sort of a job, but the call is a personal one amd 
not carino;- to let the boys know how badly scared I am, 
I step out of the ranks. Will Dabney, thoiigh laborino- 
under a presentiment that he was to be killed that day, 
joins us, as do others whose names are not recalled. 
Deploying and advanoino; through the woods we aa-e 
soon in range of the minies again. Lieut. Hunter, a little 
to our left, is struck and tumbles forward on his head. 
Will calls out to me that Hunter is killed, but he is mis- 
taken. The lieutcrianit regains his feet and finds that the 
wound is confined to his canteen. Advancing further I 
hnd a lady's gaiter and a glass preserve dish dropped by 
the enemy and proba')!}; stolen from some Southern 
home . Capt . Matt Hopkins, of Olmstead's regiment, 
picks u]> a book similarly dropped, but does not carry it 
long before a minie kno'cks it from his ha'nd. The line of 
battle follows in our wake but before it reaches us a ball 
strikes John Miller, passing directly through his body, 
and he turned to the color-bearer and said, "Frank, I'm 
killed." Frank replied, "I hope not John.'' The line 
presses on and John lies down under the pines to die. 
In a little while Frank is disabled by a wound in the 
side and turns the colors over to Billy Morris. The regi- 
ment reaches the position occupied by the skirmish lin^e 
and under heavy tire we are ordered to lie down. Sam 
Woods and the writer seek the shelter of a large pine 
and while kneeling together behind it a minie passes 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 195 

throug'h Sam's hanc! and thig-h and he limps to the rear. 
Advancing- again, we are halted just before night by a 
pond or lagoon in our front. A friendly log lies near its 
(^(\ge and we lie down l^ehind it. A Federal Ixittery open 
on us and the color-bearer of ( )lmste'aid's ist Ga. rei?^i- 
ment is knocked six or eight feet and disembcmded by a 
solid shot as it plows throug-h the ranks. As the litter- 
bearers are carrying off another wounded man from the 
same reg-iment lie begs piteously for his haversack, 
which has been left beliind. They are under fire and re- 
fuse to halt. One of the Oglethorpes, in pity for the poor 
fellow, leaves the protection of his log and nmning up 
the line secures the haversack, takes it to him, then has- 
tens back to his position. 

Night comes on. the firing ceases and the fight is end- 
ed. We have driven the enemy more than a mile, have 
captured a number of prisoners and have suffered con>- 
paratively little loss. Of the 19 Oglethorpes only one has 
been killed and three wounded, though thirteen others 
bear on their bodies, clothing or equipment marks of 
the enemy's fire, some of them in three or four places. 
I^'rank Stone, in addition to the wO'und in his side and 
a hole through his sleeve, has a chew of tobacco taken 
off by a ball that passes through his pocket. John 
Kirkpatrick has his canteen ventilated, Sol Foreman and 
Will Dabney find the meal in their haversacks seasoned 
with minies instead of salt, and the writer, in addition to 
the demoralization of his cartridge box, finds a hole in 



19G u:nder the stars and bahs. 

his haversack and thirteen in his folded blanket, all 
probably made by a single ball. Relieved from our posi- 
tion in the line by Harrison's regiment, by the aid of 
torches we find Jolm Miller's body and near it a naked 
arm taken oft at the elbow by a cannon ball. Placing 
them on a blanket, John Kirkpatrick, Will Dabney, the 
writer and another comrade' carry them nearly half a 
male to an open field and give them as decent burial as 
we can. 

War's casualties, alas, are not all counted on the bat- 
tlefield. From dread suspense that comes between the 
battle and the published list of slain and wounded, from 
the wearing agony of a separation that seems so endless, 
and the weary watching for footsteps that never come 
again, they fall on gentle hearts in lonely homes far re- 
moved from the smoke and din of musketry and can- 
non, not suddenly, perhaps, but sometimes just as surely 
as if by deadly missile on the firing line. John was an 
only child and far away in his Georgia home his stricken 
parents rendered childless by his death, mourned in their 
loneliness for "the touch of a vanished hand" until bro- 
ken hearted they, too, were laid away in the narrow 
house appointed foi- all the living. 

On the following day the remainder of Sherman's 
army came up and two divisions secured a position in 
oi7r rear, Ijut were driven back. A regiment of Texas 
cavalry inauc a successful charge in this engagement, 
holding their hridk' reins in their mouths and a navy 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 197 

pistol in each hand. A gallant son of Gen Hardee went 
in with them as a volunteer and wais killed in the charg-e. 
Our division was not engaged, there being only skir- 
mishing in our front. Harrison Foster and Billy Morris 
were on the picket line and under a misapprehension of 
an order of Gen. Bate, who was riding over the line with, 
his crutches strapped to his saddle, they advanced to a 
point within close range of the Yankee trenches. Sub- 
jected to a heavy fire, they took refuge behind a pile of 
rails. While lying there Billy was struck in the face and 
the pain of the wound led him to think that he was 
severely 3iurt. An investigation, however, showed that a 
minie ball had shattered a rail and had driven a splinter 
into the flesh. There was renewed skirmishing on the 
2 1 St, but as a company our last gun had been fired. 
Johnston, finding his force of less than 20,000 men too 
small to cope with Sherman's entire army, evacuated his 
position on the 22d and retired to the vicinity of Smith- 
field. Here we remained until April loth, when under 
an Act of the Confederate Congress, the army was re- 
organized. The numbers in each military organization 
had become so reduced that it was found necessary to 
consolidate divisions into brigades, brigades into reg- 
iments and regiments into battalions. The ist, 57th and 
63rd Ga. were merged into the First Volunteer Regiment 
of Ga., the 54th Ga. forming a battalion. The Oglethorpe^ 
alone of the ten companies of our regiment, retained 
their separate and original organization. Lieut. Wilber- 



198 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

force Daniel was made captain, with Charles T. Goetch- 
lus and Geo. W. McLaughlin as first and second lieuten- 
ants. Lieut. A. W. Blanchard was promoted to the 
captaincy of Co. K, formed of companies E, F, and G, 
and the writer, at Capt. Blandhard's request, was made 
an officer in (the same company, Will Dabney being also 
transferred and given the position of orderly sergeant. 
I am' glad to be able to say to the credit of the Ogle— 
thorpes, that the consolidadon not only failed to reduce 
the rank of any of their officers, as was the case in other 
companies, but that it resulted in the promotion of them 
all and in addition to this another company in the new 
regiment was practically officered by them. 

As soon as the re-organization had been completed 
we began our southward march, pasing through Ral- 
eigh and Chapd Hill and reaching the vicinity of Greens- 
boro on April i6th. x-Vppomatox had become history, and 
a truce of ten days was agreed upon by Johnston and 
Sherman, with a view to ending the war. On the 17th 
and 1 8th rumors were current that the army was to be 
surrendered and numbers of the troops left their com- 
mands, unwilling to submit to the seeming humiliation. 
To stop this movement Johnston issued an order inform- 
ing the army that negotiations for peace were going on 
between the governments, and on April 28th the terms 
of the Military Convention, agreed to on the 26th were 
published. Lee's surrender had shattered the last hope 
of Confederate success and a prolongation of the strug- 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 199 

gle would have been a useless and criminal sacrifice of 
life. 

A report of President's Lincoln assassination had 
reached our camp and a number o-f us went over one 
night to the quarters of Gen. John C. Brown, our divis- 
ion commander, to ascertain the correctness of the ru- 
mor. To the question, 'Ts Lincoln dead?" he replied, 
"Yes, he's very dead." *'Well, General, what do you 
propose to do when you get home?" "I am going to join 
the Quakers," he said, "My fighting days are over." On 
May 2d our paroles arrived and were signed up and on 
the 3rd we began our march for Georgia, making the 
trip of 230 miles in 11 days. In evidence oi South Caro- 
lina's loyalty to the cause, even in its dying hours, I re- 
call the fact that while passing through its teritoi-y on 
our homeward march, no man or woman refused to ac- 
cept Confederate money for any purchase made by us. 
Although then 

\ 
"Representing nothing on God's green earth, 

And naught in the waters below it," 

in Carolina, at least, 

"Like our dream of success — it passed.'' 

Reaching Augusta May 13th, we divided the teams 
allowed us for transportation and with one dollar and 
twenty cents in silver paid us at Greensboro for fifteen 
months' service, we bade our comrades in arms a tender 



200 UNDER THE STxVKS AND BAH8. 

and affectionate farewell, broke rafnks for the last time, 
and turned otir weary steps homeward. 
. The flag- we had followed for four years was furled 
forever and the Southern Confederacy was a thing- of 
the past. 

CONCLUSION. 

T would be doing violence to the expressed wishes of 
an old comrade and messm-ate, one v^hose friendship for 
me was born at the camp fire, and was streng'thened and 
intensified b}^ common hardship and dang-er, if I were 
to close these records without adding a word in behalf 
of the cause for which we fought. Were these four 
wasted years? Was the war on the part of the South only 
a wicked rebellion, as our Northen friends have been 
pleased to term it? 

Speaking only for myself as a humble unit in the four 
years' struggle, and yet feeling assured that I fairly rep- 
resent a vast majority of my Confederate comrades, I 
can say that I never kneeled at my mother's knee iii 
cliildhood with a deeper sense of duty nor a purer feel- 
ing of devotion than impelled me when, with her tear- 
wet kiss upon my boyish lips, I left the old homestead 
to take my humble station under the "Stars and Bars." 
I can say further that looking- backward over the record 
of the years, that Providence has kindly granted me, no 
four of them come back to me with a deeper sense of 
satisfaction than those which marked my service as a 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. l^OI 

Confederate soldier. The convictions formed in those old 
davs of the absolute righteousness of the cause for which 
we fought have only strengthened with the passing 
years. While the South failed in its purpose to secure 
separate national existence I have never felt that in the 
struggle it had anything to regret but failure. Despite 
the tremondous odds against which it fought, despite 
the fact that it entered the contest without an army, 
without a na\^', without military supplies, with the sen- 
timent of its border States hopelessly divided, and with 
the sympathies of the world against it, but for the loss 
of its ablest Western leader in his first battle, it would 
not, as I believe, have had even failure to regret. If Al- 
bert Sidney Johnston had not fallen on that fateful April 
Sabbath when Grant's demoralized and beaten legions 
were cowering under the river bank at Shiloh, he would, 
in my belief, have duplicated in the West, Lee's victories 
in the East and Appom'atox and Greensboro would have 
had no place in Southern 'history. Even in '64, if Presi- 
dent Davis had heeded the appeals of Gov. Brown and 
Gen Johnston, of Howell Cobb and Joe Wheeler, Sher- 
man's constant apprehension during the Dalton and At- 
lanta campaign would have become a reality. Forrest, 
the greatest cavalry leader o'f the war, and, in the opin- 
ions of Lee, Johnston and Sherman, the most brilliant 
genius developed by it, would have been turned loose on 
Sherman's rear; Atlanta would never have liave fallen, 
Lincoln would have failed of re-election and the "re- 



202 UXDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

construction" that followed in the wake of the war would 
have been confined to the geO'graphy of the country, 
rather than to Southern State governments at the hands 
of carpet-baggers. Lincoln expected such a result and 
bent every energy to end the war before the peace senti- 
ment of the North could find expression in the election 
of McClellan. The failure to utilize Forrest's genius m 
the destruction of Sherman's communication, the remov- 
al of Johnston and the resultant fall of Atlanta, turned 
the tide and the Confederacy was doomed. 

Defeat brought with it some measure of humiliation, 
and yet it is pleaisant to remember that our short-lived 
republic stands in history to-day "without a blot upon its 
honor and with no unrighteous blood upon its hands." 
With its territory scorched and sca/rred by a foe, in whose 
military lexicon the word ''humanity" found no place, the 
South struck no blow below the belt. It fought wi'-h 
rifles, not with firebrands, and made its war upon armed 
foes, not upon helpless women and children. It had no 
brutal Shermans, nor Sheridans, nor Butlers, nor Hun- 
ters in its ranks, but it is pleasant to know that it left 
to the world the legac}- of a Lee and a Stonewall Jack- 
son, whose military record stands unmarred by the faint- 
est shadow of a stain and unparalleled in Anglo Saxon 
history. While the North fought, not for the flag, not 
through sympathy for the slave, but l)y the admission of 
Lincoln himself, Just as surely for commercial greed as 
if the dollar mark liad 1^een woven into everv banner 



Tin: CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 203 

that led its hosts to battle, it is a pleasant reflection that 
the South sought onl\- to free itself from an alliance that 
had become offensive and dangerous to its liberties. And 
while Lincoln has been canonized as a m-artyred saint, I 
am glad to know that Jefiferson Davis or Robert E. Lee 
would 'have suffered a thousand martyrdoms before they 
would have penned a proclamation deliberaitely intended 
no<t only to begg'ar a whole people but to subject inno- 
cent and helpless women and children to the horrors of 
a servile insurrection. 

And so I feel assured that when in coming yeairs pos- 
terity, unblinded by prejudice or passion, shall give to 
all the claimants in the Pantheon of Fame their just and 
proper meed, as high in purest patriotism as any rebel 
that fell at Lexington or starved at Valley Forge, as 
high in lofty courage as any hero that rode with Cardi- 
digan at Balaclava or marched with Ne}^ at Waterloo, or 
fell beneath the shadow of the spears with brave Leoni- 
das, will stand the rebel soldier of the South, clad in his 
tattered grey, beneath whose faded folds is shrined the 
Stars and Bars of an invisible republic, that lives in his- 
tory only as a memory. 



204 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

ROSTER OF THE "OGLETHORPES," 1862-1865. 

Co. B. I2th Ga. Battalion. Co. A, ^rd Ga. Reg. 

OFFICERS. 

Capt. J. V. H. Allen — Promoted Major 63rd Ga. July, 
1863. 

Capt. Louis A. Picquet — Wounded May 28, '64, leg 
amputated . 

Capt. Wilberforce Daniel — Died in 1898. 

Lieut. W. G. Johnson — Died since the war. 

Lieut. *A. W. Blanchard — Wounded June 27, '64, pro- 
moted Capt. Co. K, 1st Ga., 1865. 

Lieut. C. T. Goetchius — Living in Augusta, Ga., 1900. 

Lieut. Geo. W. McLaughlin — Living in Augusta, Ga., 
1900. 

1st Serg. "^'W. A. Clark — Promoted ist Lieut. Co. K, 
1st Ga., April 10, '65. 

2d. Serg. "^O. M. Stone — Promoted ist Lieut. 66th 
Ga., '62. 

26. Serg. J. W. Stoy — Captured July 23, 64, near At- 
lanta. 

3d Serg. W. H. Clark— Promoted Asst. Surgeon, C. 
S. A., March, '63. 

3d Serg. K. A. Dunbar — Promoted ensign, 1864. 

3d Serg. R. B. Morris — Living in Augusta, Ga., 1900. 

4th Serg. Jno. C. Hill — Living in Augusta, Ga., 1900. 

5th Serg. S. C. Foreman — W^ounded Jonesboro, Aug. 

31. '64. 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 205 

Com. Serg. *W. J. Steed — Wounded June 27, '64, 
arm amputated. 

1st CoTp. *Burt O. Miller — Promoted Lieut. 47th Ga., 
May 5, '64. 

Tst Corp. Geo. G. Leonhardt — Wounded Atlanta, July 
22, '64. 

2d Corp. E. Thompson. 

3d Coi-p. B. B. P^ortson — ^Promoted ensign, died near 
Tuscumbia, Nov. 6, '64. 

4th Corp. *L. A. R. Reab — Captured at Kennesavv, 
June 27, '64. 

5th Corp. J. H. Warren — Living in Virginia, 1900. 

6th Corp. W. H. Foster — Living in Augusta, Ga., 
1900. 

7th Corp. W. H. Pardue — Wounded at Kennesaw^ 
June 27, '64. 

PRIVATES. 

*John O. Adams — Wounded accidentally, Thunder- 
bolt; July 12, '63. 

W. F. Alexander — Living in Oglethorpe Co., 1900. 

R. H. Allen — Living in Burke Co., 1900. 

J. K. Arrington — Living in Alabam.a, 1900. 

Philip Backus — Died since the war. 

C. T. Bayliss — Killed at Kennesaw, June 2y, '64. 

Henry Beale. 

*Jas. A. Beasley — Wounded at Bentonville. Marcia 
19. "65. 



^0(5 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

C. W. Beatty — D:ed of disease, Aug. 31, '63. 

*D. C. Blount. 

Thos. Blount. 

Geo. \y. Bouchillon — Died since the war. 

Jas. W. Bones. 

Henry Booth — Wounded Peach Tree Creek, July 20, 

"64. 

*T. F. ])urbank — Wounded near Kingston, May 19, 

'64. 

*W. W. Bussey — Wounded Huntsville, Aug. 11, '62, 
?.nd Kennesaw, June 27, '64. 

*J. L. Bynum — Wounded Atlanta, July 22, '64. 

Wm. Byrd — Living in Columbia Co., 1898. 

PT. T. Camipfield — Living in Augusta, Ga., 1900. 

J no. A. Carroll — Wounded Jtme 18. '64, died of 
wound . 

J. H. Casey — Wounded June 18, '64, died of disease 

J"ly, '64. 

Andy Chaniblin — Died since the war. 

W. L. Chamblin^ — Wounded and captured, Kennesaw, 
June 2^, 64, leg amputated. 

H. A. Cherry — Died since the war. 

H. C. Clary — Living in Augusta^ Ga., 1900. 

E. F. Clayton — Transferred to 12th Ga. Batt., killed 
March 25, '65. 

W. A. Cobb. 

*J. R. Coffin — Captured, Kennesaw, June 2y, '64. 

W. S. Coffin. 



THE CLOSING CAMrAKiN. 207 

W. C. Colbert — Died since the war. 

W. C. Corley. 

A. N. Cox — Transferred to 24th So. Ca., June, '64. 

H. C. Cox — Transferred to 24tlh So. Ca., June, '64. 

C. M. Crane — Promoted Q. M. Serg. ist Ga., Apr. '65. 

Floyd Crockett — Died since the war. 

H. M. Cumming — Acting Asst. Surgeon 63d Ga., '64. 

M. B. Crocker — Died of disease in hospital July 20, 

'64. 

Miles H. Crowder — Wounded, Atlanta, July 22, '64, 
leg amputated. 

"^Wm. A. Dabney — Wounded, Kennesaw, June 25, 
'64, promoted ist Serg. Co K, ist Ga., April 10, '65. 

Jno. B. Daniel — Living in Atlanta, Ga., 1900. 

John M. Dent — Living in Waynesboro, Ga., 1900. 

*Joseph T. Derry — Captured, Huntsville, Aug. '62, 
captured, Kennesaw, June 27, '64. 

*Edgar R. Derry — Ordnance Serg. 12th Ga. Bat. 

Wm. F. Doyle^ — Died since the war. 

Wiley Eberhart. 

J. R. Edwards. 

J. L. Eubanks — Died since ithe war. 

R. R. Evans — Living in Atlanta, Ga., 1900. 

R. C. Eve — Promoted Asst. Surgeon, C. S. A. 

*W. R. Eve — Captured at Kennesaw, June 2^, '64. 

J. L. Fleming — Living in Augusta, Ga., 1900. 

L. F. Fleming — Disabled in R. R. accident, July 5, 
'62. 



208 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

W. T. Flannigain. 

H. Clay Foster — Wounded, Atlanta, July 22, '64. 
J. A. Garnett — Died of disease, Atlanta, June 19, '64. 
Joel Gay. 

C. G. Goodrich — Living in Augusta, Ga., 1900. 
J. H. Goodrich. . 

Jno. C. Guedron — Died since the war. 
Wm. Guedron — Died since the war. 
Jno. A. Grant — Living in Atlanta, Ga., 1900. 
S. M. Guy — Killed at Atlanta, July 22, '64. 
S. LL Hardeman. 

C. A. Harper — Died since the war. 
J. E. Harper — Died since the war. 
*Geo. A. Harrison — Captured, Kennesaw, June 2^, '64. 
R. W. Heard — Wounded, Kennesaw, June 29, '64. 
J. T. Heard — Died since the war. 
W. M. Heath — Died of disease, June, '64. 
Geo. S. Heindel — Died since the war. 
B. T. Hill — Died since the war. 
H. L. Hill — Killed near Kingston, May 19, '64. 
A. M. Hilziheini — Fatally wounded and captured, June 
27, '64. 

*V. G. Llitt — Promoted Asst. Surgeon in '()2. 

H. W. Holt— Transferred to Co. K, 63d Ga., Aug. '64. 

John Hood. 

T. J. Howard — Living in Lexington, Ga., 1900. 

*W. T. Howard — Captured, Kennesaw, June 27, '64. 

V . T. Hudson. 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 205^ 

J. T. Hungerforrl — l^ied since the war. 
Theo. Hunter. 
J. H. Ivey. 

H. R. Jackson — Woim^icd near Dallas, May 27. '64. 
J. A. Jones — Living in Texas, 1900. 
W. LT. Jones — Living in Columibia Co., 1900. 
M. S. Keain — Died since the war. 

Jno. C. Kirkpatrick — Living near Atlanta, Ga., 1900. 
Cephas P. Knox — Fatally wounded near Kennesaw^ 
June 18, '64. 

W. T. Lamar — Living in Augusta, Ga., 1900. 

Frank Lamar — Died since the war. 

R. N. Lamar — ■Promoted Lieut, of Cavalry, Jan. 10^ 

•65. 

E. H. Lawrence — Died since the war. 

J. W. Lindsey — Captured, Huntsville, Aug. 11, '62. 

D. W. Little — Died since the war. 

M. S. Lockhart — Wounded near Kennesaw, June 19^ 

'64. 

E. J. Lott — Fatally wounded and captured, June 27^ 

'64. 

T. E. Lovell — Died since the war. 
A. T. Lyon — Company bugler. 

A. D. Marshall — Captured, Kennesaw, June 2,^, '64. 
C. O. Marshall — Transferred and promoted Lieut., '64. 
Jno. T. May — Transferred to 12th Ga. Batt. 
J, P. Marshall — Living in 1900. 
• T. W. McAfee — Living in Chattanooga, 1900. 



210 UNDER THE ^TARS AND Bx\HS. 

A. W. McCurtlv — Vv'ounded near Dallas, May 28, died 
June 12. 

J. T. McGran — Died since the war. 

*J. K. P. McLaughlin — Wounded, Atlanta, July 22, 

'64- 

L. H. McTyre. 

J. M. Miles. 

T. A. Miles. 

Jn'o. T. Miller — Wounded June 18, '64, near Ken- 
nesaw, killed at Bentonville, March 19, '65. 

Wm. Megahee. ' 

G. T. Mims. 

*A. L. Mitchell — Wounded June 27, '64, at Kennesaw. 
arm amputated. 

Geo. K. Moore — Died since the war. 

*W. B. Morris — Wounded June 2^, '64, Kennesaw. 

Geo. D. Mosher — Living in Savannah, 1900. 

St. John Nimmo — Transferred to Barnwell's Battery. 

A. J. Norton — Missing near Murfreesboro, Dec. '64. 

=^H. J. Ogilsby — Wounded July 22, '64, Atlanta. 

*J. H. Osborne — Promoted Serg. M-ajor ist Ga., 
April, '65. 

F. C. O'Driscoll. 

Alex Page. 

vS. A. Parish — Living in 1900. 

J. O. Parks. 

J. H. Patton. 

J. F. Phillips — Missing June 16, '64, died in prison. 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 211 

J. C. Pierson — Transferred to 5th Ga., June, '64. 
A. O. Pharr — Died since the war. 

A. Poullain — Transferred to 7th Ga. Cavalry. 
T. N. Poullain — Died of disease Nov. 12, '63. 

Geo. P. Pournclle — Missing June 27, '64.. Kennesaw, 
probably killed. 

Jabe Poyner — Livinc^ in Oglethorpe Co., 1808. 
R. A. Prather— Living in 1898. 
Joe Price. 

W. H. Prouty — Died since the war. 
. W. H. Pullin. 
R. A. Quinn — Wounded July 22, '64, Atlanta. 
R. Quinn, Jr. 

J. T. RatclifTf — Died of disease Nov. 5, '64, Tuscombia. 
K. K. Reeves — Living in Columbia Co., 1900. 
*W. H. Reeves — Wounded June 27, '64, Kennesarw. 
Aaron Rhodes — Living in 1900. 
J. Z. Roebuck — Died since the war. 
Jere Rooks — Living in Richmond Co., 1900. 
Obe Rooks — Fatally wounded July 22, '64, Atlanta. 

B. F. Rowland — Wounded June 2y, '64, Kennesaw. 
W. Radford — Living in Columbia Co., 1900. 

J. J. Russell — Living in Atlanta, Ga., 1900. 

A. M. Rodgers — Died since the war. 

Chas. Richter. 

J. B. Rogers — D^ed since t^e w^ar. 

Geo. D. Rice — Died since the war. 

J. M. Savage — Missing in Tennessee, Dec. '64. 



212 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

W. N. Save — Living in Atlanta, 1900. 

R. Stokes Sayre. 

P. A. Schley — Living in Richmond Co., 1900. 

J. L. Shanklin. 

C. D. Sellars. 

W. A. Sims — Died smce the war. 

M. C. Smith — Died since the war. 

W. J. Smith — Wounded June 18, '64, near Kennesaw. 

J. T. Steed — Wounded May ig, '64, died of disease, 
Oct. 10, 6'4. 

Stevens — Died in '63, Thunderbolt. 

Geo. R. Sibley— Q. M. Serg. 12th Ga. Batt. 

A. W. Shaw — Died since the war. 

*F. L Stone — Wounded March 19, '65, Bentonville, 
promoted ensign, '65. 

F. M. .Stringer — Died since the war, a 

J. J. Stanford. ^i-^t-^" 

Robert Swain — Transferred to Co. K, 63d Ga., killed 
Sept. 3d, '64, Love joy Station. 

Jais. Sullivan. 

Elijah Stowe — Company tifer. 

Floyd Thomas — Captured June 27, '64, Kennesaw. 

J. E. Thomas — Died since the war. 

Whit Thoruas — Living in Richmond Co., 1900. 

Jas. Thompson — Died of disease in '65,, Montgomery. 

R. F. Tomipkins. 

J. W. Tucker — Missing Dec. 1, '64, near Murfrees- 
boro. 



THE CLOSING CAMPAIGN. 213 



*Miles Turpin- -Company drnmnier. 

*Geo. J. Verdery — Living in North Augusta, 1900. 

*Eugenc F. V'erdcrv — Wounded July 20, '64, Peach 
tree Creek. 

R. W. Verdery— Died since the war. 

J. C. Welch — Died of disease, Dec. '64 

R. A. Welch — Living in Richmond Co., 1900. 

John Weigle — Wounded June 27. '64, Kennesaw, died 
of wound July 13. 

W. H. Wairren-— Died since the war. 

J. W. White — Died since the war. 

G. W. Whittakei — Living in Richmond Co , 1900. 

J. W. Whittaker. 

J. O. Wiley — Wounded July 22, '64, Atlanta. 

J. E. Wilson — Died Since the war. 

R. T. Winter — Living in Richmond Co., 1900. 

S. F. Woods — ^Wounded A/farch 19, '65, Bentonville. 

H. Womke — Drowned April 18, '63, Thunderbolt. 

J. F. Wren. 

W. T. Williams — Died since the war. 

S. M. Wynn — 'Died since the war. 

Wynn — Died '62, Knoxville, Tenn. 



*In addition to those registered above as survivors in 
1900, those marked witli an asterisk are known or re- 
ported to me as still living. I regret my inability to 
secure a complete list of the survivors. 



ADDENDA. 



OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. B. 

When the Oglethorpes offered their services to the 
Confederate government in '6i the married men in its 
ranks were, by a vote of the Company, excluded from the 
enhstment except as commissioned .officers. After the 
departure of the Company for the seat of war the mem*- 
bers, who were left behind, effected a new organization 
and were known c.s "Co. B." Their purpose was to or- 
ganize for home defence, but in November, '6i, they 
were ordered to Savannah by Gov. Brown, and were 
assigned to the 9th Regiment Ga. State troops, then in 
process of formation. Gen. W. H. T. Walker had thrown 
up his commission in Virginia because President Davis 
had seen fit to take from him the brigade he had organ- 
ized and had assigned to its command his brother-in-law, 
Dick Taylor, who was subordinate in rank to every 
Colonel in tihe brigade. Gen. Walker could not brook 
what he deemed a pure case of nepotism, and on his re- 
turn to Georgia he was placed in command of the bri- 
gade of State troops, to which the Oglethorpes, as Co. 
A, 9th Ga.. had been assigned. The Company, on ac- 
count of their proficiency in the manual of arms and in 
company evolution, became a sort of pet of Gen. Walk- 
er's and when his quarters were visited by ladies from 



OGLETHORPE TNEANTIIY, CO. H. 215 

Savannah the Oglethorpes were ordered out to drill for 
the benefit of his fair c;'ucsts. Mr. Frank H. Miller, who 
was a lieutenant in the company and afterwards adjutant 
of the regiment, by Gen. Walker's appointment, relates 
a characteristic incident that occurred during the Gen- 
eral's service at Savannah as his commanding officer. 
One of his men had ''run the blockade," had spent the 
night in Savannah and while hustling back to camp in 
the early morning liours, was overhauled by the sergeant 
in charge of the guard at the General's quarters. The 
soldier did not relish the idea of being placed under ar- 
rest for his escapade and backing himself against a tree 
he drew his knife and threatened to carve up any man 
who laid hands on him. The noise awakened Gen. Walk- 
er, who was sleeping in a tent near by, and rushing out 
endeshabille, he shouted, ''What the d — 1 is the matter 
out here?" The sergeant, who seemed to be suffering 
with a nervous chill, stammered out, "He won't be ar- 
rested. General. He says he'll kill anybody that touches 
him." The General rushed up to the man and said, "Give 
me that knife, sir." The soldier handed it over with a 
smile on his face and the General saw as he took it that 
t!he weapon was entirely bladeless. Turning to the ser- 
geant he said, "Turn that man loose. I won't have any 
man arrested who can back out a whole guard with a 
knife that hasn't got a blade in it." And the "l:)lockade 
runner" went scot free. 

In Mav, '62, their six months term of service havinsr 



216 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

expired, the company was mustered out at Augusta. A 
majority of its members soon effected a re-organizaftion 
for regular Confederate service and the new company 
was ordered to Corinth, Miss., and for a time was ass- 
igned to the 5th Ga. Regiment, then serving in the bri- 
o;-ade of Gen. John K. Jackson. Before leaving this camp 
the 26. Battalion Ga. Sharpshooters was organized, under 
tinder the ccm-mand of Major Jesse J. Cox, of Alabama, 
and the Oglethorpes became Co. C of that famous or- 
ganization known in the Army of Tennessee, as "Cox's 
Wild Cats." For the remaining years of the war this bat- 
talion was identified with every movement and did gal- 
lant service in every engagement of the Western Army. 
.As "Sharp-shooters" it fell to their lot to serve almost 
continuously on the skirmish line, opening every battle 
in which their division was engaged. Transferred from 
Tupelo to Chattanooga in the summer of '62, they took 
part in Bragg's Kentucky -campaign and at its close were 
s'*"ationed fc^r a time at Knoxville and then at Bridgeport, 
rejoining Bragg again in time to participaite in the battle 
of Murfreesboro, Dec. 31, '62. During that engagement, 
-at Gen. Polk's request, the battalion, with Jackson's bri- 
gade, was temporarily detached from Hardee's corps 
and was sent into the famous cedar thicket where they 
were exposed to the concentrated fire of Rosecranz's 
parked artillerya nd lost half their number. Among the 
casualties sustained by the Oglethorpes was the loss of 
their gallant conimader, Capt. E, W. Ansley, and the 



OGLETHORPE INFANTKY, CO. B. 217 

l»rave color-bearer of the battalion, Edward H. Hall. 
Lieut. M. G. Hester succeeded to the captaincy and the 
colors were given to Geo. F. Bass of the Oglethorpes, 
who seem to have furnished all the ensigns for the bat- 
talion. During the Kentucky campaign the colors had 
been borne by Corporal M. V. Calvin, and after the 
transfer of Bass to another command, they were entrust- 
ed to another Oglethorpe, Wm. Mulherin, who carried 
them with marked gallantry until his capture at the bat- 
tle of Nashville, in the winter of '64. 

Through the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary 
Ridge, with Johnston through the hundred days from 
Dalton to Atlanta, and with Hood at Franklin and 
Nashville, the ',VVild Cats" sustained their 'hard-earned 
reputation as a lighting organization, closing up their 
soldierly record with the surrender of Johnston's army 
at Greensboro in April, '65, at which date Lieut. George 
P. Butler was in command of the Oglethorpes. A num- 
ber 0)f the gallant survivors of the company are still liv- 
ing in or near Augusta, among them, Orderly Sergeant 
Wm. K. Thompson, Serg. M. V. Calvin, Corp. Brad 
Merry, Corp. W. H. Miller, -Musician W. B. White, 
Evans Morg-an, W. H. Hendrix and W. D. Shaw. 

"■ SHIPS THAT DID NOT PASS IN THE NIGHT. 

Brad Merry's name recalls an incident that occurred 
a,t the Charleston Reunion in 1899. Brad and the writer 
had agreed to make the homeward trip together. On 



218 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

reaching the train I failed to meet him. The coaches were 
crowded, but I finally secured a seat with a stranger, who 
after the formation of a railroad acquaintance, proved 
to be Rev. T. P. Cleveland, living near Atlanta. After a 
pleasant cha't about our mutual friends in Atlanta and 
elsewhere, I strolled through the train in search of my 
friend Brad. Finding him in a forward coach, I chanced 
to say, with no special reason for making the statement, 
that I had a seat with a Rev. Mr. Cleveland. "What's his 
full name?" asked Brad, with a look of interest. "T. P." 
I replied. "Tom Cleveland! Why there isn't a man in 
the world I'd rather see. We were old schoolmates. 
Where is he?" Taking him back to my coach I said, 
"Mr. Cleveland, here's an old friend of yooirs. Brad Mer- 
ry." The mjeeting was a very joyous one. As the glamour 
of the old days came over them and with glowing faces 
and happy hearts they talked of the long ago, a lady 
stepped across the aisle and said, "Didn't I hear this 
gentleman call you Mr. Brad Merry?" "You certainly 
did, madam," said Brad. "Why, Mr. Merry, I knov^r 
you. Your battalion was camped near my father's house 
for a long time and you and your comrades came over 
nearly every evening and saaig for us. We had mighty 
pleasant times together in those old war days." Brad's 
smile reached from his dhin to the back of his neck as he 
grasped her hand and said, "I am delighted to see you 
again. I remember you distinctly. Your father had three 
girls, Virginia. Alaljama and Tennessee." "Well," said 



OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. B. 219 

she, "this is Viro-mia." and pointing across the aisle to 
her sister, "there's Alabama." The ride to Augusta was 
no longer tiresome or tedious. In the renewal of their 
old time acquaintance and the revival of so many per- 
sonal memories the hours sped swiftly and when I left 
the train Brad was using all his persuasive power to 
induce the entire party to stop over at Berzelia and 
brighten for a time his Pinetucky home. 

They were strangers to m^, but I enjoyed their happi- 
ness and was glad to have been the unconscious instru- 
ment in bringing them together again. But for the acci- 
dent of my finding that special seat vacant, these four 
ships would have "passed in the night," possibly to hail 
each other no more until with wearied sail they cast their 
final anchor in the harbor that lies beyond the sunset. 

OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. B. 

(Company A, Ninth Regiment Georgia State Troops.) 

OFFICERS. 

Edwin W. Ansley, Captain. 

Frank H. Miller, First Lieutenant. 

Thomas II. Holleyman, Second Lieutenant. 

M. G. Hester, Third Lieutenant. 

Ed. F. Kinchley, Commissary. 

W. C. Sibley, Secretary and Treasurer. 

G. E. Boulineau, Orderly. 

G. W. Hersey, Second Sergeant. 



UNDER THE STARS AND BARS 

S. A. Verdery, Third Sergeant. 
Ed. E. Dortic, Fourth Sergeant. 
Vv''. A. Paul, First Corporal. 
J. M. Weems, Second Corporal. 
W. H. Frazer, Third Corporal. 
James Heney, Fourth Corporal. 

PRIVATES. 

Armstrong, Pat. 
Bruckner, J. D. 
Butler, G. P. 
Barrow, Wm. 
Bailie, G. A. 
Butt, Wm. P. 
Cheesborough, Wm. 
Chenell, John. 
Calvin, M. V. 
Cress, J. G. 
Cheesboro'Ugli, C. M. 
DuBose, Robt. M. 
Davis, Jas. S. 
Duvall, R. B. 
Davies, John N. 
Day, John H. 
Fleming, Peter L, 
Gartrell, Jas. M. 
Glover, Wm. 
Heard, Henry. 



OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. B. 221 

Henry, Jacob A. 
Hett, Ed. 
Hkt, Dan W. 

Hubbard, Jas. C. • 

Jonas, Chas H. 
Kerniker, Ed. 
Kenner, Jas. H. 
Lane, Lucius A. 
Mulherin, Wm. 
Marshall, Jno. D. 
Merry, Brad. 
Nunn, Tom P. 
Norris, W. B. 
Nelson, Tom C. 
Niblett, Jas. M. 
O'Hara, Thos. 

Parker, Gustave A. 

Phinizy, Thos. A. 

Page, Alexander. 

Richmond, H. P. 

Roulette, Mike. 

Shackleford, J. H. 

Setze, Jno. 

Shaw, Alfred W. 

Simmons, R. R. 

Smythe, Wm. W. 

Stevens, Jno. 

Samuel, Wolfe. 



222 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

Shaw, Wm,. A. 
Tant, Wm. D. 
Tuttle, Dan W. 
Thomas, Wm. 
Thompson, Wm. K. 
Travis, Luke. 
Tant, Alexander. 
Verdery, Eugene. 
White, Wm. B. 
Wiley, Landly J. 
Wingfield, W. J. 
Woodard, C. B. 
Wolfe, Mike. 
Youngblood, Sam. M. 
Young, Jas. R. 

MUSTER ROLL OF OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, 
COMPANY C, 2d GA. SHARPSHOOTERS. 

OFFICERS. 

Captain, Edwin W. Ansley. 
First Lieutenant, M. G. Hester. 
Second Lieutenant, Jas. M. Weems. 
Third Lieutenant, E. E. Dortic. 
First Sergeant, Wm. K. Thompson. 
Second Sergeant, Walter H. Frazer. 
Third Sergeant, Geo. P. Butler. 
Fourth Seroreant, Wm. A. Griffin. 



OGLETHORPE IXFANTRY, CO. B. 223 

Fifth Sergeant, J. D. Marshall. 
First Corporal, W. H. Miller. 
Second Corporal, Thos. O'Hara. 
Third (Jorporal, Bradford Merry. 
Fourth Corporal, M. V. Calvin. 
Secretary, Henry P. Richmond. 
Music ans, W. B. White, E. A. Young. 
PRIVATES. 

Ancierson, W. F. E. 

Bruckner, J. D. 

Bunch, G. M. 

Bass Geo. F. 

Boddie, John S. 

BouHneau, W. A. 

Cheesborough, C. M. 

Carroll, J. R. 
•Cleckley, A. 

Duke, J. B. 

Duke, John F. 

Duke, B. F. 

Duvall, R. B. 

Duddy, Wm. 

Epps, W. D. 

Fowler, J. C. 

Gardiner, H. N. 

Gates, Wm. 

Hall, E. PL 

Hall, A. G. 



224 UNDER THE STAllS AND BARS. 

Helmuth. F. 
Hendrix, W. H. 
Hinton, G. W. 
Isaacs, Wm. 
King-, Jesse. 
Kerniker, Edward. 
Lamback, Geo. F. 
Miilberin. Wm. 
Manders, J.J 
Morgan, Evan. 
Mathis, J. T. 
Nelson, T. C. 
Peppers, J. M. 
Peppers, A. H. 
Roberts, Chas. P. 
Roulett, M. 

Robinson, James. 

Shaw, A. W. 

Shaw, W. D, 

Stephens, E. A. 

Sa/muels, W. 

Tobin, John. 

Tant, Alex. 

Talbot, J. M. 

Taylor, Wm. 

Tuttle, D. W. 

Wise, T. C. 

Wolff, M. • 

Young-, J. R. 



OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. B. 22.> 

SUPPLEMENT. 

As this is my fiist, and will probably be my last at- 
tempt at authorship, in deference to the possibly too 
partial judgment of friends, I have ventured to include 
in the volum-ne two additional sketches in no way con- 
nected with the memories, which precede them. Yield- 
ing to the same kindly criticism I have added also a war 
poem, intended to perpetuate an incident whose hardly 
paralleled pathos has not, I trust, been marred by the 
poetic dress in which I have attempted to preserve it. 

ONE OF MY HEROES. 

Personal courage, when from the lack of selfish ends, 
it rises to the plane of real chivalry, has always met with 
willing homage from the hearts of men. I do not know- 
that hero-worship has entered largely into my own men- 
tal or moral makeup, and yet for thirty years and more 
my heart has paid its silent and yet earnest tribute to 
one, who in unadulterated grit and innate chivalry was 
the peer of any man I have ever known. I have called 
him my hero, but he was mine, perhaps, only by right of 
discovery. I found him in a little Florida village in the 
winter of '66. There was nothing in his appearance to- 
indicate the hero. No title, civil or military added digni- 
ty to his name. So far as I know no stars or bars had 
gilded the old grey uniform he had laid aside with Lee's- 
surrender. He was simply plain Bob Harrison. Of his 
lineage or earthly history I leamcd but little. 1 knovvr 



226 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

that he was the son of a Methodist minister who, some 
\ears before, had moved to Florida from South Carolina, 
and who, by right of apostolical succession, was not only 
2. good preacher but a good fisherman as well. I know, 
further, that in one of the battles in Virginia my friend 
liad been shot through the lungs and had been left upon 
the battlefield to die. 

The surgeons in their hurried rounds passed by on 
the other side, declining to waste their time on one, who 
in a few short hours would be beyond the reach of hu- 
rman aid. Despairing of any relief from them, he had tied 
his handkerchief around his chest to staunch the life 
blood that was ebbing away, and through the long, long 
lonely night had waited for death or help to come. On 
the morrow the burial corps had found him still living, 
^nd in the hospital he was nursed back to partial health 
again. The press had placed his name among the dead, 
and far away in his Southern home loving ones mourned 
for him until one summer's day his feeble footsteps on 
the walk and his pallid arms about their necks brought 
to their hearts a resurrection just as real as that which 
gladdened Mary and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus. 
Of his service as a soldier I know no more than I have 
written. My claim* for him is based upon incidents that 
occurred wdien the war had ended and his record as a 
soldier had been made up. 

At the date and in the section of which I write the 
tide of lawlessness that followed in the wake of war had 



OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. ]i. 227 

not yet reached its ebb. During my stay a party of toughs 
came to the village and for a week or more terrorized 
the place. An effort was made to secure their arrest by 
civil process, but from lack of nerve in the offtcers, or 
failure to secure a posse, the effort failed and the gang 
was having its own sweet will without let or hindrance. 

At this juncture Bob Harrison rode into the village one 
day from Jiis country home. The lady, at whose board- 
ing house these men were stopping, told him of their 
misdoings. He was living six miles away and had no 
personal grievance against them. His wounded lung had 
never healed and frequent hemorrhages from it had paled 
the color in his cheeks and weakened a body none too 
strong when in perfect health. But the appeal stirred 
the chivalry of Jiis nature and he did not hesitate a mo- 
ment. He went to them and in vigorous English de- 
nounced their conduct as ungentlemanly and dishonor- 
able and told them it must stop. 

That afternoon a challenge came to him to meet them 
at a designated place next morning to answer for the 
insult he had given. He rode in before breakfast and at 
the appointed hour he was promptly on hand armed with 
a brace of pistols and a bowie knife. For three hours he 
offered satisfaction in any shape they chose to take it, and 
with any weapon they might select, but his nerve had 
cowed them and the offer was declined. Then he said to 
their leader, "Voit have been making threats against my 
friend, ChaHie P — for some fancied wrong. He has a 



928 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

wife and children to mourn him if he falls. I have none. 
I stand in his shoes today and any satisfaction you claim 
from him you can get from me here and now." The bully 
failed to press his claim. The gang soon left the village 
and quiet reigned again. 

A short time prior to this incident a young lady had 
made her home in the village — a stranger, without rela- 
tives or friends. A citizen of the place taking advantage 
of her unprotected condition, began to circulate rumors 
reflecting on her dhairacter. These reports reached Bob 
Harrison's ears. She was bound to him by no ties of 
blood or special friendship, but her helplessness was 
claim enough. He called on the author of the slander 
and asked to see him privately. The man showed him 
into a room and Bob locked the door and put the key 
in his pocket. "Now, Mr — ," he said, ''you have circu- 
lated slanders about Miss — . She has no relative here to 
protect her and I have come to put a stop to it. I don't 
propose to take any advantage of you. I am going to 
lay these two pistols on this table. You will stand with 
your face to that wall and I will stand with my face to 
this. When I give the word if you can secure a pistol 
first you are at liberty to shoot. If I get one first, I am 
going to shoot. You have got to do that or you have got 
to sit down at this table and sign a "lie bill." The man 
looked into Bob's eyes a moment and said, 'T'll sign the 
lie bill," and Miss — 's name was safe from slanderous 
tongues from that day on. 



OGLETHORPE INEANTRY, CO. 13. 229 

In neither of these cases did he have the sHghtest per- 
sonal interest. 

His conduct was prompted solely by the ch.val- 
ry of the man. He impressed me as ordinarily one of the 
gentlest and mildest mannered of men and yet I believe 
he would have led a forlorn hope to certain death with- 
out a tremor. 

With the close of winter I returned to my Georgia 
home and over the gulf of silence that has intervened 
since that spring day in '(yy, no tidings have come to me 
of my friend, Bob Harrison. If he still lives my heart 
goes out in tender greeting to him today, and if he 
sleeps beneath the daisies I trust this little tribute to his 
worth will cause the sod that lies above him to press 
none the less lightly over his manly heart. 

BEN HILL AND THE DOG. 

A REMINISCENCE. 

Just fifty years ago in the unceiled, unpainted and 
largely unfurnished rooms of an "Old Field School," 
holding a blue-backed speller in my boyish hands, i sat 
with a row of barefoot urchins on a plain pine bench 
and watched with sleepy eyes the mellow sunshine creep- 
ing all too slowly towards the 12 o'clock mark cut by 
the teacher into the school room floor. This primitive 
timepiece that marked the boundary line between school 
hours and the midday intermission, known in schoolboy 
vernacular as ''playtime," was never patented, although 



230 UNDER THE STAES AND BAES. 

it had the happy faculty of never running down and 
never needing repairs. To the student of today revehng 
in the luxuriant appointments of the present public 
school system there may come sometimes a touch of 
pity for the simple methods and the meagre equipment 
of the old field school, whose teachers in addition to the 
inconvenience of having to ''board around," were some- 
times forced to receive partial compensation for their 
work in liome.made ''socks." Such of my readers as may 
be disposed to discredit the free and unlimited knitting 
o'f socks as a circulating medium for the payment of 
school salaries, are respectfully referred to my friend, 
W. J. Steed, for the historical accuracy of this state, 
ment 

And yet — and yet, minimizing- as we may the limited 
advantages of those old school days in the '40's, and 
magnifying as we do the wondrous advance in educa- 
tionail methods and appliances in all grades from the 
kindergarten to the university, the fact remains that 
"there were giants in those days" who seem, to have no 
successors. Examples might be multiplied both in our 
state and national life, but I give only two. The places of 
George F. Pierce in the pulpit and of Benjamin H. Hill 
m the forum and on the hustings have never been filled. 
Tt may be true that Dame Nature requires after the pro. 
duction of great men a period of repose and rest, and if 
my limited observation is not at fault she is enjoying a 
good long nap. Whatever may have been the explana. 



OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. B. 281 

tion O'f the fact mentioned, the privilege of hearing these 
men in their palmy fl:;3S, of feeling tihe ''cold chills" 
creep up the spinal column as they soared to the em. 
pyrean heights of impassioned oratory, of losing con- 
sciousness of time and pla,ce and environment under the 
magic spell of their almost superhuman eloquence, fur- 
nished some measure of compensation for the meagre 
advantages, on educational Hnes, of the last generation. 

The writer's first opportunity to hear Ben Hill occurr. 
ed at Mount Aloriah camp ground, in Jefferson county, 
in the presidential campaign of 1856. On the disintegra- 
tion of the old Whig party Mr. Hill had aligned himseli 
with its residuary legatee, the American party, and was 
canvassing the State as an elector on the Fillmore ticket. 
He was 33 years of age, just in the rosy prime of a su. 
perb physical and intellectual manhood. I was only a boy 
and knew nothing of parties or party politics, but I re- 
member that for three hours and more he held the rapt 
and untiring interest and attention of that vast audience. 

At the close of the speech Major Stapleton announced 
that a messenger had been sent to Mr. Stephens asking 
a division of time with Mr. Hill 3it the former's appoint- 
ment in Burke county, on the next day. Mr. Hill was 
sitting on the pulpit steps, and when the announcement 
closed he said, "Yes, I am not afraid to meet ''Little 
Aleck," nor big Aleck, nor big Bob added to them," al- 
luding to Mr. Toombs. Mr. Stephens did not consent, 
but met Mr. Hill afterwards at Lexington, Ga., in the 



232 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

same campaign. Out of this debate grew Mr. Stephens* 
challenge and Mr. Hill's refusal to accept it, an incident 
which 5iad large influence in ending the reign of the code 
duello in Georgia. 

Two years later I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Hill 
again in the State campaign for governor. A joint can- 
vass of the State had been in progress, but after a few 
discussions Governor Brown found that he was no match 
for Mr. Hill on the ''stump," and he wisely cancelled 
further engagements. In giving his reasons for such 
action he said that Mr. Hill was too much of a sophist, 
that he could make the worse appear the better cause, 
and to enforce the point he related the ''pig and puppy" 
anecdote, a favorite illustration with political speakers in 
those days. In the speech I refer to, delivered at Cov- 
ington, Ga., Mr. Hill gave his opponent the benefit of a 
stajtement of tlie reasons he had assigned for his with- 
drawal, with the anecdote included, and then with the 
sm-ile that always gave premonition of a 'happy retort, he 
said, "And now, fellow-citizens, in this campaign I have 
made no effort to make anything out of anybody but 
Mr. Brown, and if I have made nothing better than a 
pig or a puppy it was the best I could do with the ma- 
terial I had to work upon." 

Mr. Hill never employed the anecdote argument in his 
speeches, but if used against him no man of his time or 
perhaps of any other time was able to turn its edge more 
readily or more effectively on his opponent I recall only 



OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. B, 233 

one passage from the address and as it has not been 
preserved in his published speeches I give it in illustra- 
tion of his style a*t that date. After disposing of his op- 
ponent and the State campaign he turned his attention 
to national issues and in urging his audience to resist 
Northern encroachments on their rights closed a burst 
of impassioned oratory with these words: ''Has the 
spirit of Southern chivalry folded its wings for an eter- 
nal sleep in the grave of Calhoun? Shall the breezes, 
which blow from' the 'cowpens' where the infant days oi 
Jackson were spent, now fan the brows of a nation of 
slaves? Rise, freemen of Georgia! Arise in your might. 
Shake ofif this Delilah of party for she is an harlot and 
will betray you to your destruction. Arise! drive back 
the invader from your thresholds, or like Samson of old. 
pull down the pillars of the temple and perish in one 
common ruin." Its efitect upon the audience may be in- 
ferred from the faict that it has lingered in my memory 
more than forty years. I heard Mr. Hill no more until 
some years after the war His nerve in putting an end to 
the seizure of cotton by Federal agents in the South in 
'65, his "Davis Hall" and '"'Bush Arbor" speeches and 
his "Notes on the Situation" had given him the very 
highest place in Southern esteem and affection. x\nd 
then came his acceptance of an interest in the State Road 
Lease and his speech at the "Delano Banquet," which 
placed him under the ban of popular distrust and post- 
poned the day when Southern character and Southern 



234 UNDER THE STARS AND BARS. 

• 
history was to find its brave and complete vindication at 

his hands in the halls of Congress. During this shadowed 
period in his life I heard him several times in Atlanta, 
and on one of these occasions occurred the incident 
which forms the title O'f this sketch. Chafing under the 
criticisms and abuse to which he ihad been subjected he 
boldly defended the consistency Oif his record and point- 
ed proudly to the day in '65 when the lips of every pub- 
lic man in Georgia were sealed except his own. "And 
now," my friends," said he, ''when the lion of military 
government had prostrate Georgia in its cruel grasp, 
these men, who are now decrying me, were hiding away 
in quiet places afraid to face him. But when largely 
through my persistent efforts liis clutch was loosened 
and he was recalled to his den in Washington, the whole 
breed, 

Mongrel, puppy, w^help and hound, 
And cur of low degree, 

left their hiding places and came out barking, not at the 
lion, but at me, yelping, "Radical!" "Radical!" "Radi- 
cal!" The words had barely left his lips when a huge dog 
standing in the centre of the aisle, began barking loudly 
and vigorously, with liis eyes fixed on Mr. Hill. I do not 
know that the speaker, in imitation of a certain mmis- 
ter's reputed habit of inserting, "Cry here," at the close 
of the pathetic passages in his manuscript, had inserted 
"Bark here" in his notes, but I do know that the im- 



OGT.ETITORPE INFANTRY, CO. 15. 235 

promptu illustraticMi titted in so pertinently that the 
storm of applause, that greeted it, would have lifted the 
roof if such a result liad been possible. For several minu- 
tes there was perfect pandemonium. As the wave of 
sound rolled and swelled and rose and fell to rise in 
larger volume than before the speaker faced the audience 
with the shadow of a smile upon his face and when the 
last ripple of applause had died away he said: "My 
friends, I meant no reflection on that dog." 

I have had the privilege of hearing Toombs, Stephens. 
Johnson and Howell Cobb, the first two, a number of 
times. I claim no ability to make intelHgent comparison 
among these distinguished Georgians. But basing an es- 
tim^ate simply upon their effect upon myself and upon 
others as I have observed it, I should say that while in 
epigrammatic force, in the ability to pack thought into 
limited space, Mr. Toombs had no equal among them, 
yet in effective oratory, in the power to sway an au- 
dience at his will, whether in the domain of ice-cold logic 
or in the higher realms where only angels soar, Mr. Hill 
probably towered above them all. The peroration to his 
appeal for the pardon of Wm. A. Choice had few equals 
in all the range of English forensic literature. It has not 
been preserved, and in the forty years that have elapsed 
since its delivery, my memory retains but a single sent- 
ence, and with that I close this sketch: "Even from the 
lips of the murdered man, a voice comes back to us to- 
day, as soft as evening zeypihyrs through an orange 



36 u:n^der the stars axd bars. 

grove and as warm as an angel's heart. 'Forgive him, 
save him, for he knew not what he did.' " 



THE REBEL CHAPLAIN AND THE DYING BOY 
IN BLUE. 

The touching incident recorded in the following 
verses occurred on a bloody Western battlefield in the 
old war days in the '6o's. Rev. J. B. AIcFerrin, formerly 
of Nashville, Tenn., and nov/ in Heaven, an able and 
honored minister of the Methodist church, and for four 
years a Confederate chaplain in the army of Tennessee, 
was the Christian hero of this tenderly pathetic story. 
His untiring devotion to the sick and wounded amid the 
dangers and hardships of camp and field are gratefully 
remembered by his surviving comrades, while his gentle 
kindness to a stricken foe, will be em.balmed in the lov- 
ing memory of every veteran of both the ''Blue and 
Grey." 

'Twas evening on the battle field; 

O'er trampled plain, with carnage red 
The lines in blue were forced to yield. 

Leaving their dying and their dead. 

All day 'mid storm of shot and shell, 

With smoking crest, war's crimson tide 

Had left its victims where they fell, 
Nor heeding if they lived or died. 



OGT.ETII()Hi>E INFANTRY, (JO. B. 

And now the cannon's roar was dumb, 
^ The "Rebel Yell" was hushed and still 
The shrieking- slidl, the bursting- bomb 
Were silent all on plain and hill. 



237 



From out the lines of faded grey 

To where the battle's shock was spent, 

A rebel chaplain made (his way, 
On mercy's kindly mission bent. 

He kneeled beside a stricken foe, 
Whose life was ebbing- fast afway, 

And then in gentle words and low, 
He asked if he might read and pray? 

"No, no," the wounded man replied, 

"My throat is parched, my lips are dry," 

And in his agony he cried 

"Oh, give me water, or I'll die." 

The chaplain hurried o'er the strand 
And in the stream his cup he dips, 

Then hastening back, witli gentle hand 
He pressed it to his waiting lips. 

"Now shall I read?" he asked again, 

While bleak winds blew across the wold, 

"No," said the soldier in his pain, 

"I'm growing cold, I'm growing cold." 



238 UNDER THE STARS AKD BARS. 

Then in the wintry twilig'ht air 

His ''coat of grey" the chaplain drew, 

Leaving his own chilled body bare, 
To warm the dying boy in blue. 

The soldier turned with softened look, 
With quivering Hp, and moistened eye, 

And said: "If you, in all tlhat book 
Can find for me the reasons why, 

A rebel chaplain such as you, 

Should show the kindness you have shown 
To O'ue who wears the Union blue, 

I'll hear them' gladly, every one," 

In tender tones the good man read 
Of love and life beyond the grave, 

And then in earnest prayer he plead 
That God would pity, heal and save. 

Above the "Blue" — above the "Grey" 
Shone no Cathedral's lofty spire, 

Yet I am sure the songs that day 
Were chanted by an Angel Choir. 

llie evening darkened into night, 

The shadows fell on wold and strand, 

But in their hearts gleamed softer light 
Than ever shone on sea or land. 



OGLETHORPE INFANTRY, CO. B. 239 

And ere the wimtry night was o'er, 

Beyond the sunset's purpled hue, 
The stars rose on a fairer shore 

To greet the dying boy in bUie. 

Long years have come and gone since then, 
Long years the good man Hved to bless 

With kindly deed, his fellow men, 
And then to die in perfect peace. 

And when in Heaven's eternal day, 
They met before His throne of light, 

There was no blue, there was no grey. 
For both were robed in God's own white. 



1 N DEX. 



IX TROOUCTORY. 

Paore 

Early History of the ( )gletliorpcs 7 

Off to the War 9 

The Laurel Hill Ivetrear 15 

CHAI^TKR [. 

Donning the Grey 17 

My First March 21 

My First Skirmish 23 

My First Picket Duty 29 

My First Battle 30 

A Nig-ht Stampede 33 

Three Little Confederates 36 

CHAPTER TL 

A Change of Base 38 

A Tramp With Stonewall Jackson 43 

Aunt Hannah 48 

A Ride With Belle Boyd, the Confederate Spy . . . . 50 

Home Again 55 

Roster of Oglethorpe Infantry^ 56 

. CHAPTER HL 

Service with 12th Ga. Battalion. 

A "Little Long'' 62 

1 2th Ga. Flag 63 

Col. Hogeland's War Diary 65 

The Parson and the Gravy 71 

Rations 75 



INDEX— Continued. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Coast Service. 

Page 

-A Study in Insect Life 80 

Fire and Fall Back 86 

Skirmishing for Pie 87 

Steed and the Sugar 88 

Our Camp Poet 91 

CHAPTER V. 

Daltoii and Atlanta Campaign 97 

Stripe^ on the Wrong Side 107 

A Twilight Prayer Meeting 109 

Tom Howard's Squiirel Read 112 

''Jini, Touch Off Xo. i" . . 114. 

A Summer Day on the Firing Line 117 

Saved from' Death by a Bible 123 

Battle of Kennesaw 130 

Under Two Flags 137 

Saved from a Northern Prison by a Novel 142 

A Slave's Loyalty 148 

CHAPTER VI. 
Nashville Campaign. 



A Christmas Day With Forrest 155 

Gen. Bate as a Poet and Wit i65 

Pat Cleburne as an Orator 16S 

•*Who Ate the Dog?" 171 

Courage Sublime 17*^ 



INDEX— Continued. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Page 

The Closing Campaign. 

An Arctic Ride , .,,. ... . . 182 

A Sad Home Coming ...:.;,,'.■. . .187 

Our Last Battle 190 

Conclusion 200 

Roster Co. A, 63rd Ga 204 

ADDENDA. 

Oglethorpe Infantry Co. B . .214 

Roster Co. A, 9th Ga., Co. C, 2d Ga. S. S 219 

SUPPLEA/IENT. 

One of My Heroes 225 

Ben Hill and the Dog 229 

The Rebel Chaplain and the Dying- Boy in Blue . . . .236 



NOV 30 1900 



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